LOCAL NEWS — According to a new study released last week, Moore County is one of the most “paycheck friendly” spots in the state. Moore ranked number three behind Williamson and Wilson counties. Trousdale, Cannon, Rutherford, Meigs, Sumner, Davisdon, and Cheatham also made the ranking. To view the complete rankings, click here.

To find the most paycheck friendly places, Smart Asset considered four factors for counties across the U.S.: semi-monthly paycheck, purchasing power, unemployment rate, and income growth.

First, they calculated the semi-monthly paycheck for a single individual with two personal allowances and then applied relevant deductions and exemptions before calculating income tax withholding. To better compare withholding across counties, they assumed a $50,000 annual income and then indexed the paycheck amount for each county to reflect the counties with the lowest withholding burden, or greatest take-home pay.

With that information in hand, they then created a purchasing power index for each county. This reflects the counties with the highest ratio of household income to cost of living. Then, they created an unemployment index that shows the counties with the lowest rate of unemployment. For income growth, they calculated the annual growth in median income throughout a five year period for each county and then indexed the results.

To reach the final “paycheck friendly” score, they calculated the weighted average of the indices to yield an overall paycheck friendliness score.

Moore County residents were also among those in Tennessee who experienced the greatest amount of income growth throughout a five year period. Our county ranked sixth in income growth, fifth in purchasing power, and second in unemployment rate with just 3.8 percent unemployment. •

{The Lynchburg Times is the only locally-owned newspaper in Lynchburg and also the only woman-owned newspaper in Tennessee. We cover Metro Moore County government, Jack Daniel’s Distillery, Nearest Green Distillery, Tims Ford State Park, Motlow State Community College, Moore County High School, Moore County Middle School, Lynchburg Elementary, Raider Sports, plus regional and state news.}