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Top 15 U.S. Cities Where Employees Are Being Overworked (Is Yours One?)

Find out which U.S. cities are pushing their workers to the limit.

By Jenny Cohen

Edited by Jeff White

Updated May 28, 2024

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You may feel overworked, but is it just you or the city you live in? You may find it interesting that some cities are overworked more than others, which means it might be a geographical culture.

FinanceBuzz collected data to determine how overworked 50 cities in the U.S. are based on issues like how many hours the average worker puts in per week, commute times, and workers with more than one job or a weekend side gig.

Did your city make the top 15 most overworked cities? Check out this list to find out.

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1. Washington, D.C.

Overworked rating: 81.1

The nation’s capital topped the list of overworked cities, even if it's considered financially fit, with Washington leading cities with older adult workers.

The city has 23.4% of its workforce over the age of 65. It also ranked third among the 50 cities for the percentage of households with two or more people working full-time.

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2. Denver, Colo.

Overworked rating: 80.6

Denver ranks fifth among cities with two or more people working full time per household and third among cities where workers have two or more jobs.

3. Austin, Texas

Overworked rating: 69.7

Austin makes the top 10 cities with 60% of workers in a household with two or more full-time workers. One reason for the need to have multiple full-time incomes may be the high housing costs in the area.

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4. Minneapolis, Minn.

Overworked rating: 67.0

The Midwest city of Minneapolis might get cold in the winter, but employees are running hot when it comes to being overworked.

According to the Finance Buzz survey, the city ranks second in households with more than one full-time employee.

5. Dallas, Texas

Overworked rating: 66.9

If you live in Dallas, you may have to accept that you’ll be working when you’re over 65. The city ranks second in older adult workers, with 22.9% of the workforce over 65.

6. Boston, Mass.

Overworked rating: 65.1

Your commute may contribute to being overworked if you live in Boston.

The New England city ranks among the top 10 cities for longest commute, with commuters averaging 28.4 minutes to get to work, the same commute time for Los Angeles residents.

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7. Salt Lake City, Utah

Overworked rating: 62.9

Salt Lake City’s spot on this list is boosted by the number of households with two or more people working full-time jobs.

Salt Lake tops that metric with 63.6% of households with more than one worker in a full-time position.

8. Kansas City, Mo.

Overworked rating: 62.9

You’ll be putting in extra work hours if you work in Kansas City.

The Missouri town ranked second on FinanceBuzz’s list of cities where employees work more than 50 hours a week, with 64.6% of workers putting in those hours.

9. Indianapolis, Ind.

Overworked rating: 62.1

Indianapolis made it into the top 10 for workers over 65. The city known for its speedway has plenty of older workers, with 20.4% of its workforce at least 65 years of age.

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10. Baltimore, Md.

Overworked rating: 61.7

Don’t expect a vacation if you work in Baltimore, as it made the top 10 among cities with employees working more than 50 weeks a year.

Among the city’s workforce, 63.6% will be on the job for more than 50 weeks each year.

11. Nashville, Tenn.

Overworked rating: 61.0

Expect to put in some long hours if you live in Nashville. The city tied for 10th place with Denver regarding weekly hours worked, with employees putting in an average of 39.3 hours a week.

12. Raleigh, N.C.

Overworked rating: 60.1

Raleigh ranks high among cities seeing the most residents moving into them, and that migration into Raleigh could contribute to its overworked population.

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13. Seattle, Wash.

Overworked rating: 57.2

Get ready for a long commute if you live in Seattle.

The Emerald City has an average commute time of 28.5 minutes for workers, ranking it among the top 10 longest commutes in the Finance Buzz survey.

14. Virginia Beach, Va.

Overworked rating: 56.8

You’ll be putting in long hours if you work in Virginia Beach, which made the top 5 among cities based on weekly hours worked.

The average employee in the city is working 39.2 hours per week.

15. Columbus, Ohio

Overworked rating: 55.0

Employees in Columbus tied for fourth place among cities, with residents working two or more jobs to make extra money.

Around 5.8% of Columbus residents fall into that category, matching the ranking of Milwaukee and two other Ohio cities: Cincinnati and Cleveland.

Bottom line

So, are you living in an overworked city? There can be ways to combat being overworked.

You may want to consider finding a different job that pays more to stop living paycheck to paycheck while putting in the same amount of hours. Remote work could also be an option to cut back on your commute time.

You can also try other ways to cut back on hours or find ways to save more money so that you can stop working so much and enjoy the finer things in life.

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