Each year around the Labor Day holiday, the international nonprofit, Oxfam, conducts and releases a study in which it ranks the best and worst states in the U.S. to work. The researchers preparing the report examine a long list of indicators – more than three dozen – that help them determine how well average […]
NC Newsline · Clayton Henkel · September 7, 2026
Patricia Stottlemyer (Courtesy photo)
Each year around the Labor Day holiday, the international nonprofit, Oxfam, conducts and releases a study in which it ranks the best and worst states in the U.S. to work. The researchers preparing the report examine a long list of indicators – more than three dozen – that help them determine how well average workers are paid, treated, and respected in the workplace in hopes of inspiring public officials to enact more and better worker-friendly laws and policies.
Unfortunately, for North Carolina workers, the 2026 Best States to Work Index once again confirms what so many of them already know: namely, that our state does a lousy job in this area. Indeed, as Newsline learned this past week in a conversation with Oxfam America’s labor rights policy lead Patricia Stottlemyer, at a time in which the national affordability crisis is making life harder and harder for average households, the new index ranks our state dead last in the nation.
Labor Day 2026: North Carolina ranks best for business economy, dead last for workers
Click here for the full interview with Oxfam America’s labor rights policy lead Patricia Stottlemyer.