The Hippest City in the USA (Des Moines)

Emily Snavely is a tiny 11-year-old with blue eyes, freckles, and curly blond hair that's pulled up on top of her head in a green hair band. She has been a student at the Downtown School since kindergarten. "I don't get it when my friends who don't go here say, 'I never see my parents,' " she says. "I always see mine. They're around all the time." Emily's father, Rodney, is a fixture at her school: Five years ago, he began helping Emily and her classmates wash up for lunch every Friday. He has also read to them and supervised recess. Emily's mother, Kelly, helps out at the annual book fair and occasionally makes lunch-duty appearances at the school, too. Rodney isn't a postmillennial stay-at-home dad. He's a full-time dentist with a thriving private practice. Nor is Kelly a housewife; she works full-time as a vice president at Wells Fargo. The Snavelys are, however, poster parents for the imaginative work-life balance championed by residents and employers in -- get this -- Des Moines, Iowa, home of the 10-year-old Downtown School.

Never mind California or New York. By some important measures, Des Moines is way ahead of its cooler coastal cousins. A stunning 68% of children under six years old here have no stay-at-home parent, significantly more than in Chicago (53%), Houston (49%), Los Angeles (46%), or New York (51%). And while big burgs like New York and San Francisco flirt with double-digit jobless rates, unemployment in Des Moines is only 3.5%. Companies elsewhere have slashed the benefits and other goodies they piled on in the booming 1990s (they're expensive, after all). According to the Society of Human Resources Management's annual benefits survey, in the last year alone, the percentage of U.S. companies offering flextime options to employees has dropped from 64% to 55% -- and the percentage of companies allowing telecommuting as a full-time option has dropped from 23% to just 17%. But in Des Moines, companies have only increased their family-friendly perks, making life in Iowa's capital city today feel as hip -- and as privileged -- as in Silicon Valley circa 1999. Not bad for a city that just narrowly avoided being named Fort Raccoon in the 1840s.

Of course, it helps to have a local economy that's still on the upswing. A flock of financial-services firms have been settling in Des Moines, attracted by its quality of life, cheap real estate, good public schools, short commute times, and low labor costs. Some 60 insurance companies make their headquarters here. Many mortgage lenders, their businesses booming thanks to low interest rates, have also expanded their operations in Des Moines. Two high-profile examples: Last April, Wells Fargo added 1,500 new jobs to the city, mostly in its mortgage division. And ING closed offices in Phoenix and Houston three years ago, moving 400 jobs to the city. A favorable tax structure and good highway access have attracted companies with large distribution operations, too. Firestone just opened a new tire distribution center on the outskirts of the city.

In Des Moines's tight labor market, those employers face some stiff challenges when it comes to attracting and retaining quality workers. For starters, the high proportion of working spouses means there isn't an untapped labor pool to draw on, says Jim DeVries, vice president of human resources at Principal Financial Group, Des Moines's largest employer. "The goal then becomes how to make jobs attractive enough to keep those spouses in the workforce and keep our turnover as low as possible." And for all of its many virtues, Des Moines isn't Seattle or San Jose. Potential recruits from out-of-state may have it pegged as isolated, provincial, and homogeneous -- not to mention awfully cold in winter.

And so it is that Principal, a diversified insurance company, offers employees free financial counseling, lactation centers for new mothers, free or subsidized parking, a Muslim prayer room, and on-site childbirth classes for expectant mothers. At an annual "Stork Fair," expectant parents are enticed by programs such as "Daddy Boot Camp," where dads-to-be can learn how to change diapers and bottle-feed newborns. Each month, more than 3,500 Principal employees use the company's state-of-the art athletic facility, which hosts classes in tai chi, Pilates, spinning, and body sculpting, and is also home to volleyball, basketball, and softball leagues. The company's subsidized Weight Watchers program is one of the largest in the United States: This year, spokeswoman Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, made a special trip to Des Moines just to speak to Principal's members.