Using a formula that weighs wage costs, taxes, electricity costs, and costs of real estate for industrial and office space, the Milken Institute recently declared Hawaii, New York, and Massachusetts the most expensive states in which to do business. Its annual Cost of Doing Business Index found that Hawaii's costs of doing business are 43 percent higher than the national average. The state with the lowest cost, South Dakota, was 28 percent below the national average. According to the Institute, “states with a low cost of doing business have, on average, greater job growth than those with high costs.”
