If you were to ask the vast majority of American workers how they would define quality of life, the top two items on their list would most likely be decent and affordable housing in which to live and raise their family, and access to decent public schools for their children.

This is a far cry from most “quality of life” rankings, which focus on more trivial areas like recreation and culture. Don’t get me wrong: Recreational and cultural opportunities are important, but not nearly as critical to the average American as are housing, schools and freedom from crime.

Let’s face it. Home ownership is one of the dual cornerstones of the American Dream, and the ability to realize that dream is what sets us apart from most of the rest of the world. To be able to afford a decent and safe place to raise a family rests at the core of the American fabric and acts as a magnet to less fortunate people throughout the world.

It is also an integral part of the American fabric to focus on the future, to dream about improving one’s lot in life and, even more importantly, to provide our children with the opportunity to live in better circumstances than we were able to. That’s why good schools rank right at the top of our list of priorities.

Access to quality public education is the other cornerstone of the American Dream, because it opens up the opportunity for anyone, through talent and hard work, to reach for the brass ring of wealth and success that is abundantly available in this great country.

Clearly, not every public school district provides a quality education, but those that do provide a much greater quality of life that those that don’t (even if those that don’t may have greater access to ski slopes or world-class opera performances).

Also important to quality of life is being able to afford to enjoy a comfortable middle class lifestyle, to have enough money left over after taxes and basic necessities to be able to save money for the kids’ future college expenses, to not be overwhelmed by fear of being victimized by crime, and to not spend half your life stuck in traffic.

Those are just some of the factors most Americans take into consideration when they mentally calculate their “quality of life.” It’s also what employers should take into consideration as part of their facility location selection process.

What Factors Go Into Quality of Life?

In our opinion, the ability to afford a decent place to live and to be able to send one’s children to quality public schools are by far the two most important categories in evaluating a metro’s overall quality of life.

To measure housing affordability, we looked at home ownership and rental costs. For home ownership, we used the National Association of Home Builder’s most recent “Housing Affordability Index,” which calculates the percentage of a metro area’s population that is able to afford to buy the median-priced home in that particular metro.

For those who either can’t afford — or choose not — to buy a home, we also include data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s “Fair Market Rentals,” which calculates the average cost of a one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartment in various communities.

Together, this gives us a picture of how accessible decent housing is for the average employee.

To measure the quality of the metro’s public schools, we used data from our 2003 Education Quotient™ study, which compares every secondary school district in the United States with an enrollment of at least 3,300 students (2,800 districts in all) throughout the country.

In order to come up with an EQ score for the entire metro area, each school district’s relative contribution was weighted based upon its enrollment as a percentage of the total metro student enrollment.

For those unfamiliar with Expansion Management’s EQ, school districts throughout the country are compared against one another according to a variety of categories, such as college board scores, graduation rates, beginning and average teacher salaries, per pupil expenditures and student-teacher ratio.

College board scores and graduation rates, which measure the output of the education process, are most heavily weighted, while community and state spending on education is less important to the overall final (EQ) score.

Next we tried to get a feel for the overall standard of living enjoyed by the average resident of the various metro areas. Included in this category are the median family income, per capita income, cost of living, average annual unemployment rate for 2003, the state and local tax burden, and the per capita disposable income.

After all, income is not important for its amount, but rather for what it can buy.

In the peace of mind category, we try to get a handle on the relative threat to persons and property in each metro. In this category, we compare the most recent violent crime and property crime statistics from the FBI.

In the area of transportation, it is important to be able to travel around the metro without being constantly stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, as well as to have decent airport access and service.

For that, we include two categories we call traffic congestion and safety, with data taken from the Federal Highway Administration, and Air Accessibility, with data taken from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Looking at quality of life from the dual perspective of the employer and the employee, we included three additional categories: continuing education opportunities, adult education levels and adult employability.

Having a variety of post-secondary educational opportunities that are conveniently located is important to both employers (for job-related training) and employees (for personal growth and future job opportunities).

The continuing education category attempts to measure the depth and variety of continuing education opportunities in various communities throughout the country, and uses data from David Savageau’s Places Rated Almanac.

It includes the number of community colleges, as well as colleges and universities offering degrees — B.A./B.S. through Ph.D. Not only are these educational institutions important for the opportunities they offer to the adult community at large, but they are also important partners and service deliverers for work force training incentives offered by each of the 50 states.

Adult education data, taken from the U.S. Census Bureau, tries to get a general feel for the level of formal education for the adult community. It includes the percentage of the adult population over the age of 25 with at least a high school diploma, as well as those over 25 with at least a college degree.

In order to get a better feel for the depth of the pool of knowledge-based workers, we include the percentage of the overall work force that has at least a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, a Ph.D. degree, a science or engineering degree, and a postgraduate professional degree.

Finally, adult employability attempts to get a feel for the cost and availability of workers in various metro areas. This category includes such things as the metro’s average annual unemployment rate for 2003, workers in the 18-to-34 age group, adult education levels throughout the metro, along with average annual pay and the average wage per job.

What Does it Mean for Employers?

Every metro in the United States offers quality of life — at a price. If you make enough money, you can afford to buy a decent house in a safe neighborhood, send your kids to a private school, pay your taxes, etc., and still have enough money left for vacations and your kids’ college fund.

The question is — at what price?

As an employer, you have certain specific jobs for which you need to hire employees. Those jobs will not change regardless of where your facility is physically located.

However, if your business needs allow you to choose between several different locations, then the relative cost of a comfortable middle class lifestyle (i.e., quality of life) for your future employees becomes a basic business decision.

Remember, if you price your employees too low, you risk low quality, high turnover or both.

So, if it will cost you $60,000 (or whatever figure is appropriate) in salary and benefits to provide a comfortable middle class lifestyle for that employee in location A, and $70,000 to provide the same comfortable middle class lifestyle in location B, which will you choose?

That’s what we mean by “quality of life.”