Michigan’s ranking in an annual “Best States to Work Index” fell five spots from last year, despite a Democratic government trifecta focused on “restoring workers’ rights.”

Michigan slid to 31st among all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia in an annual Best States to Work Index from Oxfam released ahead of Labor Day. In 2023, Michigan ranked 26^th, Michigan Advance reports.

Oxfam, a global advocacy nonprofit focused on fighting “inequality to end poverty and injustice,” has released the index every year since 2018 to “take a look at new efforts to give workers higher pay, stronger workplace protections, and the right to organize unions and collectively bargain for a more equal future.”

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The analysis considered 27 policies across three categories – wage policies, worker protections, and rights to organize – assigning a score for each category, as well as an overall score.

“Measure of both worker wellbeing and economic outlook are strongly correlated with high placement on our index, and its’ clear these policies benefit everyone,” Kaitlyn Henderson, lead researcher for Oxfam America, said in a statement. “Continued federal inaction on basic things like living wages and paid leave has trapped millions of families across the U.S. in cycles of working poverty and exacerbated inequality along lines of race, class, and gender. Federal policymakers should take inspiration from the states at the top of our index. We have the models, and we know they work.”

In all three categories, Michigan was among the bottom half of states, ranked 31^st for wage policies, 29^th for worker protections, and 27^th for rights to organize.

Overall, Michigan ranked in the middle of the Great Lakes region, ahead of Indiana in 33^rd and Wisconsin in 38^th, but behind Ohio in 22^nd and Illinois in 7^th.

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Michigan ranked by far the worst among states where Democrats control both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s mansion. No states with a Democratic government trifecta ranked in the bottom half, with Delaware ranked the next closest in 20^th.

The 2024 Oxfam analysis also included a separate study of the “Best and Worst States for Working Women” that ranked Michigan 26^th, again the worst among states under Democratic control.

Michigan’s bottom tier rankings for workers comes despite Whitmer’s best efforts to expand worker rights at the expense of businesses and taxpayers.

In March 2023, Whitmer signed “Restoring Workers’ Rights” legislation that reinstated prevailing wages on state projects and repealed right-to-work protections that blocked unions from requiring membership as a condition of employment.

“Michigan workers are the most talented and hard-working in the world and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” Whitmer said at the time. “These bills will protect health and safety, ensuring healthcare workers can put patient care ahead of profit, construction workers can speak up when there’s a safety issue, and employees can call attention to food safety threats and other problems. Let’s continue delivering for working people and ensuring Michigan is open for business.”

While recent research shows Michigan is actually the 48^th “hardest working state” in the U.S., others have suggested the repeal of right-to-work legislation and other policies adopted by Whitmer and the Democratic majority in the legislature are major factors for an massive exodus from the state.

Whitmer’s own Growing Michigan Together Council noted in a report last year the state is “lagging in median income, educational outcomes and attainment and have fallen behind faster-growing peer states in key measures of infrastructure, community well-being, and job opportunities.”

“Michigan now ranks 49^th out of 50 states in growth since 2020 and our population is aging,” the report read.

“Outbound migration will continue to be an issue, and I suspect accelerate unless our state makes an about-face in its policy choices,” Michael LaFaive, senior director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Institute, told The Midwesterner, citing the repeal of right to work and other policies that have driven up costs for Michiganders.

“Economics 101 tells us if you raise the price of anything less will be demanded of it,” he said. “So, if lawmakers raise the cost of living, working, and creating jobs, we’ll get less living in Michigan, fewer jobs, and less wealth too.”

All of the fastest growing states in the U.S., with the exception of Florida, ranked in the bottom 10 of the Oxfam study, based on census data.

North Carolina, CNBC’s top state for business two out of the last three years, was ranked 51^st by the nonprofit.