Best states in the US for wages, working hours and jobs - full list

New research has revealed the states with the best annual wages in the US, as well as the overall happiness of residents.

HR experts SelectSoftware Reviews analyzed key metrics across all 50 states to discover where are the best and worst places in terms of job satisfaction.

This index looked at various factors including wages, quit rates, commute times, annual leave and working hours.

Using these metrics, the HR software company was able to determine to rank the best and worst states to work in.

According to SelectSoftware Review’s analysis, Alaska is the state with the happiest employees, while Georgia was found to have the worst job satisfaction.

Alaska was found to have the shortest overall work weeks at 31.3 hours, as well as a generous salary of $52,000 a year.

It should be noted Massachusetts had the highest average wage at $58,450 but Alaska bested it with an overall job satisfaction of 69.96.

Rhode Island came second place in terms of job satisfaction thanks to decent paid time off and a low quit rate of 2.5 percent.

North Dakota came in third position with a job satisfaction rate of 56.40 based on its decent annual wage of $47,000 on average and relatively short commute time.

Comparatively, New York had the longest commute time at 33.4 minutes which can be detrimental to employee morale.

In fourth place for job satisfaction, Colorado workers have an average annual salary of $50,250 with a below-average working week as well.

Rounding up the top five is Minnesota with generous paid leave laws and a low quit rate of 1.8 percent.

Here is a breakdown of the top states with the happiest and unhappiest employees in the US:

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