The 20 best and worst states for employees' mental health

It seems that the whole country is struggling to fend off plummeting mental health rates, but some states are faring better than others.

American workers face an average of 4.2 poor mental health days every month — almost enough to round out a full workweek, according to mental health clinic CertaPet, which recently documented the self-reported average number of days employees consider themselves to be too “mentally unhealthy” to go to work over the period of 30 days.

Read more: Employers and employees are at odds over mental health support at work

Employees in southern states like West Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee had the most number of monthly PTO days, averaging almost five and a half days per month. Hawaii, on the other hand, fared more positively, with workers taking three and a half days to tend to their mental well-being.

However, employees across the country had a relatively equal number of days spent dealing with stress and other concerns, signaling that employers must do more to support their workforce. While nearly all C-suite executives and HR leaders think they’re doing a good job when it comes to mental health, only 66% actually feel supported and 28% feel that their employer failed to support their mental health during the pandemic, according to data from Modern Health.

Below are the states with the highest and lowest number of days taken in order to combat burnout: