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My takeaway is that unions are helpful and they can help the economy because of how they support their workers. I also learned that everything with unions comes down to incomes and how much help people get from there job which can effect the economy.

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The second article that supports my stance: 

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The second article that supports my stance: 

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This article informs the audience that unions are not only good for the workplace and it’s workers, but unions are also good for the community or economy. The article provides statistics about healthcare, wages, household income, unemployment, and paid sick and leave. The article shows how unions have help, but also shows the effect of the states that don’t have as many unions. The article slightly shows the cause and effect of not having unions, but also the cause and effect of having a union with statistics to match.

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We know that unions promote economic equality and build worker power, helping workers to win increases in pay, better benefits, and safer working conditions.

But that's not all unions do. Unions also have powerful effects on workers' lives outside of work.

In this report, we document the correlation between higher levels of unionization in states and a range of economic, personal, and democratic well-being measures. In the same way unions give workers a voice at work, with a direct impact on wages and working conditions, the data suggest that unions also give workers a voice in shaping their communities. Where workers have this power, states have more equitable economic structures, social structures, and democracies.

Income and economic protections

We find that, on average, the 17 U.S. states with the highest union densities:

have state minimum wages that are on average 19% higher than the national average and 40% higher than those in low-union-density states

have median annual incomes $6,000 higher than the national average

have higher-than-average unemployment insurance recipiency rates (that is, a higher share of those who are unemployed actually receive unemployment insurance)

Health and personal well-being

We find that the states with the highest union densities:

have an uninsured (without health insurance) population 4.5 percentage points lower, on average, than that of low-union-density states

have all elected to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, protecting their residents from falling into the "coverage gap"

are more likely to have passed paid sick leave laws and paid family and medical leave laws than states with lower union densities

Democracy

We find that:

Significantly fewer restrictive voting laws have been passed in the 17 highest-union-density states than in the middle 17 states (including D.C.) and the 17 lowest-union-density states.

Over 70% of low-union-density states passed at least one voter suppression law between 2011 and 2019.

Background

A wealth of scholarship documents the positive effects unions have for workers, both those who are unionized and those who are not. We summarize these below.

Higher wages and decreased income inequality. On average, a worker covered by a union contract earns 10.2% more in wages than a peer with similar education, occupation, and experience in a nonunionized workplace in the same industry (EPI 2021e). This wage advantage is known as the "union wage premium." But unions don't just help union workers-they help all workers (Bivens et al. 2017). When union density is high, nonunion workers benefit, too, because unions effectively set broader standards-including higher wages-which nonunion employers must meet to attract and retain the workers they need (Rosenfeld, Denice, and Laird 2016; Mishel 2021). The combination of the direct wage effect for union members and this "spillover" effect for nonunion workers means unions are crucial to raising wages for working people and reducing income inequality (Card 1996, 2001; Card, Lemieux, and Riddell 2018).

Reduced wage gaps. Unions also help to reduce gender and racial/ethnic wage gaps. Hourly wages for women represented by a union are 4.7% higher on average than for nonunionized women with comparable characteristics (EPI 2021d), and research looking at specific cases suggests that unions reduce gender wage gaps for similar jobs within a given workplace (Gould and McNicholas 2017). For example, Biasi and Sarsons (2020) show that the expiration of teacher collective bargaining agreements led to an increase in the wage gap between men and women with similar credentials, implying that the terms of the collective bargaining agreement had previously helped to minimize such wage gaps. Unions have also historically helped and continue to help close wage gaps for Black and Hispanic workers (Farber et al. 2021). Black workers represented by a union are paid 13.1% more than their nonunionized Black peers, and Hispanic workers represented by a union are paid 18.8% more than their nonunionized Hispanic peers (EPI 2021d).

Increased government revenue and decreased government spending. Unionization has a range of positive economic impacts in addition to decreasing wage inequality and closing gender and race wage gaps. Sojourner and Pacas (2018) find that union membership yields a positive "net fiscal impact"-or, to put it simply, unionized workers have more income and therefore pay more taxes. Unions pave the way for more income and wealth-building for workers and therefore more revenue for the government.

Sojourner and Pacas (2018) also find that unionized workers use fewer public benefits. Higher incomes allow workers and their families to be less dependent on government benefits, and unions also help workers win benefits such as health insurance from their employers.

Employer-sponsored benefits including health insurance, retirement, and paid leave. Union workers are far more likely than nonunion workers to be covered by employer-provided health insurance. More than nine in 10 unionized workers have access to employer-sponsored health benefits, compared with just 68% of nonunion workers, and union employers contribute more to their employees' health care benefits (EPI 2021d). Furthermore, union employers are more likely to offer retirement plans and to contribute more toward those plans than comparable nonunion employers. Union workers are also more likely to have paid sick days, vacation and holidays, more input into the number of hours they work, and more predictable schedules (EPI 2021d).

Strengthened health and safety. Unions also improve the health and safety of workplaces by providing health insurance and paid sick time, requiring safety equipment, and empowering workers to report unsafe conditions without fear of retaliation (Zoorob 2018; Amick et al. 2015). So-called right-to-work legislation that weakens unions has been associated with a roughly 14% increase in the rate of occupational fatalities (Zoorob 2018).

Increased civic engagement and broader community benefits. Beyond wages, benefits, and safety, recent scholarship shows the indirect effect unions have on people's political and personal attitudes and on the broader community and economy as a whole. Frymer and Grumbach (2021) find that union membership reduces white racial resentment. Feigenbaum, Hertel-Fernandez, and Williamson (2019) analyze the relationship between unions and political advocacy, specifically on policies related to worker empowerment and economic justice. They find that weakening unions (through the enactment of "right-to-work" laws) has significant long-term political and economic effects, such as lower voter turnout, lowered organized labor contributions, less voter mobilization, fewer working-class candidates serving in state legislatures and Congress, and more conservative state policy. These political consequences undoubtedly affect not only the communities in which they take place, but also the broader economy, as the chosen candidates enact economic policies.

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Our analysis in this report supports this existing scholarship on unions. The strong relationship between union density and a range of economic, personal well-being, and democratic outcomes is consistent with the idea that unions focus the political power of workers and result in the advancement and defense of policies that benefit the broad interests of workers, their families, and their communities.

The data we analyze across a wide range of indicators support the notion that through advocating for higher wages and better benefits for members and, more generally, by mobilizing and building grassroots coalitions and acting as one of the main countervailing forces against rising corporate concentration, unions act as a channel for producing and cementing positive economic, health, and democratic outcomes in the communities in which they are active.

Methodology: How we measure union density

First, a brief note on how we measure union density at the state level. In this report, we categorize union density as the share of workers in a state who are members of a union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Union density data are averaged across states from 2015 to 2019 to give a more accurate estimate of state unionization rates and avoiding temporary single-year changes. We end at 2019 to avoid any potential distortions related to the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing recession. We draw our data from the Economic Policy Institute extracts 1 of the Current Population Survey (CPS) Outgoing Rotation Group (ORG), a nationally representative monthly survey of U.S. households conducted by the Census Bureau on behalf of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For the purposes of this analysis, we divide the 50 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, into three groups based on their level of union density. These groupings are shown in Table 1: The 17 states with the highest union densities are "high-union-density" states (with 13.5%-24.7% of workers covered); the next 17 states (including D.C.) are "medium-union-density" states (with 8.3%-13.3% of workers covered); and the remaining 17 are "low-union-density" states (with 3.2%-7.7% of workers covered).

Figure A depicts the data from Table 1 in map form. While there are some regional clusters within the density groups, unionization rates vary nationwide.

Economic well-being

The first category of well-being we examine is economic well-being, broadly defined as working people having the means to support themselves. We look at the relationship between union density and three indicators related to economic security and stability: the minimum wage, median income, and the unemployment insurance (UI) recipiency rate. We find that states with higher union density have consistently higher minimum wages, incomes, and UI recipiency rates than states with lower union density.

Minimum wage

For most people, salary and wages are the main source of income used to cover cost of living. State minimum wages establish a wage floor for the minimum hourly wage employers must pay workers in that state. More than half of U.S. states have passed laws raising their minimum wage above the federal minimum (EPI 2021b). Laws that increase a state's minimum wage directly boost the pay of the lowest-paid workers-who too often have little bargaining power-by effectively shifting the wage negotiation from one between an employer and an individual worker to one between employers and the broader community. Since relative pay plays an important role in wage setting, minimum wages also have an indirect effect on wages above the minimum, by raising the base of comparison for higher earners (Spriggs and Klein 1994). The "ripple effect," in which employers give nonmandated raises to maintain a similar wage structure after a change in the wage floor (through minimum wage legislation, for example), also has an outsized impact on workers (Wicks-Lim 2006).

While worker productivity has risen over the years, growth of real wages and incomes has been slow or stagnant for most working people for most of the last four decades (EPI 2021c). In the four decades through 2019, low-wage workers (those at the 10th percentile of the wage distribution, that is, those who make less than 90% of all workers) saw their wages rise only 3.3% in inflation-adjusted terms, compared with a rise of 15.1% for the median worker (right in the middle of all wage earners) and 63.2% for high-wage workers (those at the 90th percentile, who make more than 90% of all workers) (Gould 2020a). Workers being paid the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25 per hour, have actually seen a 30% fall in their inflation-adjusted earnings over the last 50 years (Shierholz 2021). Figure B depicts the geographic variation of union density and 2021 state minimum wages.

Unions have played a central role in organizing and mobilizing campaigns to increase state and local minimum wages. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), for example, has had a crucial role in the successful national Fight for $15 campaign (Greenhouse 2015). A recent report by the National Employment Law Project estimated that since 2012, Fight for $15 has helped raise wages for nearly 26 million workers, winning over $150 billion in additional income (Lathrop, Lester, and Wilson 2021).

As Figure C shows, the high-union-density states (listed in Table 1) have a higher average state minimum wage ($11.40) than the medium- and low-union-density states (at $9.22 and $8.10, respectively). The average minimum wage in the high-union-density states is $3.31 higher-or more than 40% higher-than in the low-union-density states.

Black, Hispanic, and Asian American/Pacific Islander women-along with Black and brown workers as a whole, who have long been overrepresented in low-wage service sectors-have benefited disproportionately from these efforts (Banks 2019). Historically, expansions of the minimum wage have also contributed to closing racial wage gaps (Derenoncourt and Montialoux 2021). In the present, minimum wage campaigns, which are strongly backed by unions, have played a significant role in raising incomes and lowering wage disparities for workers of color (Lathrop, Lester, and Wilson 2021).

Median household income

Another key related economic well-being indicator is annual median household income. Income is useful to examine alongside minimum wages because it gives us a picture of what the typical working household actually earns over the course of a year, not just the minimum employers are required to pay an individual worker.

We observe a clear, positive relationship between unionization and median household income across states. The national median income was $69,720 in 2019. As Figure D shows, high-union-density states had an average median income about $6,000 higher than the national average. In comparison, the low-union-density states had an average median income about $6,500 lower than the national average. It is also worth noting that the high-union-density states had an average annual median income over $10,000 higher than low-union-density states. These results are consistent with the evidence that unions directly raise wages of union workers and, when union density is high enough, also raise the wages of nonunion workers. These wage increases then translate into higher annual incomes.

Unemployment insurance

The final measure of economic well-being we examine is the unemployment insurance (UI) recipiency rate. When a worker is laid off from a job and their household income falls, unemployment insurance helps the worker support themselves and their family until they find another job. The UI recipiency rate, reported by the Department of Labor, represents the "insured unemployed" as a percentage of the total unemployed-i.e., the share of unemployed workers who actually receive UI benefits. (Note that we are intentionally analyzing only 2019 data to avoid distortions due to the pandemic economy and legislative changes, most notablythe creation of several temporary, pandemic-related federal enhancements to the UI system. The 2020 federal emergency programs plugged several key gaps in the state systems and minimized, though did not eliminate, drastic state differences in benefits. The 2019 data represent UI benefits from the states' regular UI programs only.)

Figure E highlights the positive relationship between unionization and UI recipiency rates. The high-union-density states had an average UI recipiency rate of 37% in 2019, roughly double the average UI recipiency rate of the lowest-density third of states (18%). In low-union-density states, fewer than one in five workers who applied for UI benefits received them, compared with nearly two in five in high-density states.

The large differences in the UI recipiency rates across states are not based on any particular economic logic. These differences largely reflect the wide scope states have to determine specific features of eligibility criteria, the application process, benefit amounts, and duration of benefits. Many states have made the application and eligibility process difficult in order to cut costs by reducing the number of successful claims (Badger and Parlapiano 2020; Stewart 2020; Wamsley 2020).

Unions use their influence to increase UI eligibility, ease of access, benefit levels, and benefit duration, to the benefit of all workers, union and nonunion (Hertel-Fernandez and Gould-Werth 2020). In their role as intermediary institutions that can act as a complement to legislated benefits and protections, unions also inform and educate the workers they represent about the unemployment insurance system and guide them through the application process (Walters and Mishel 2003). Recent research has found that unionized workers are 19 percentage points more likely to apply for and receive benefits than nonunionized workers after accounting for worker, job, and state characteristics (Hertel-Fernandez and Gould-Werth 2020). The same research finds that unions can help close large racial gaps in accessing UI.

Summary of economic well-being indicators

Across the states, unionization is consistently associated with higher levels of economic well-being as measured by the level of a state's minimum wage, median annual income, and access to unemployment insurance benefits. In each case, there are clear channels through which unions can-and do-influence these critical economic outcomes.

Personal well-being

The second category of well-being we examine is personal well-being, which we define as an individual's physical and mental health. Within the category of personal well-being, we look at three indicators: health care coverage, Medicaid expansion, and access to paid family and sick leave. As we demonstrate below, states with higher union density are more likely to have higher levels of all three personal well-being metrics.

Access to health insurance

The first marker of personal well-being we examine is access to health insurance. Almost all union workers (94%) have access to health insurance, compared with just 67% of nonunion workers (Gould 2020b). Economic research has documented that unionized workers also face lower direct costs for health care coverage than their nonunionized peers (Buchmueller and DiNardo 2001). Unions are an important channel workers use to secure high-quality health insurance, and when union members gain these benefits, nonunion employers are more likely to offer better compensation, including health care benefits, in order to remain competitive (Mishel 2021).

There are a variety of ways people can access health insurance, whether privately through employer-based programs or direct purchase; through a public program such as Medicaid, Medicare, and the Veterans Administration; or some combination. In 2019 in the U.S., about two-thirds of the population had health insurance coverage through private sources, including employer-based (Keisler-Starkey and Bunch 2020, Table HIC-4_ACS). Unfortunately, many people fall through the cracks and are unable to access any private or public health insurance programs, either because their employer does not offer a health care plan or because they earn too much or too little to qualify for one of the public programs. This "coverage gap" ensnares over 2 million people each year (Lukens and Sharer 2021). In this section, we examine how the uninsured rate-i.e., the share of a state's residents who fall into this coverage gap-intersects with union density levels.

Figure F shows a clear negative relationship between state unionization rates and the uninsured rate: States with high union densities have an uninsured population 4.5 percentage points lower, on average, than that of low-union-density states. Put another way, people in low-union-density states are nearly 1.7 times as likely to lack any form of health insurance as their peers in high-union-density states. Unions directly impact health care coverage by bargaining for employer-sponsored health care coverage for employees and their dependents. Having not only access to health insurance, but also some or all of the costs covered by the employer-which unions have successfully negotiated for-greatly improves job quality.

Unionization and health and economic outcomes are deeply intertwined. Access to high-quality health insurance, including health care for dependents, improves household and individual financial security. Investment in health care and health care access has also been linked to other positive economic outcomes, such as boosted income (Raghupathi and Raghupathi 2020). Access to health care also leads to clear positive health outcomes, including a lower rate of chronic illness and a higher likelihood of receiving preventative care for critical health conditions (Tolbert, Orgera, and Damico 2020; Washington 2001). In our analysis, we see the same pattern for personal well-being as for economic well-being: States with high unionization not only have higher minimum wages and higher median household incomes, but they also have higher health insurance coverage rates than states with low unionization.

Medicaid expansion

To fully understand how unions intersect with health care coverage, we examine-alongside the uninsured rate-whether a state has expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to broaden eligibility to more low-income people. The Medicaid public insurance program provides critical health coverage to families and individuals with low incomes. As with the unemployment insurance system, the Medicaid program has broad federal guidelines but is administered by states, with a 2012 Supreme Court decision ruling that Medicaid eligibility and expansion could be decided by states. As a result, eligibility, benefits, and coverage differ greatly by state.

In the states that did not expand their Medicaid programs, eligibility is limited to an annual income of just under $9,000 for a family of three (41% of the poverty line). By contrast, states that have adopted Medicaid expansion have extended eligibility to people with incomes up to $17,609 for an individual (138% of the poverty line) (Garfield, Orgera, and Damico 2021). Expanding Medicaid would help to close the "coverage gap" and provide health insurance to the estimated 2 million people who do not qualify for Medicaid and who do not earn enough to be eligible for other subsidized plans under the ACA (Simmons-Duffin 2021). Research has found that Medicaid expansion has improved access to health care; improved health outcomes, including fewer premature deaths; lowered uncompensated costs; bolstered financial security; boosted economic mobility; and more (CBPP 2020).

As Figure G shows, there is a clear difference between high- and low-union-density states in terms of Medicaid expansion. By 2019, all 17 high-union-density states had expanded Medicaid, compared with just five of the low-union-density states. Over 70% of the low-union-density states have not expanded Medicaid. (The map in Figure H shows specifically which states had and had not expanded Medicaid by 2019, along with each state's union density.)

Unions have been long been central in supporting grassroots campaigns and coalitions to expand Medicaid. Broad union political support for Medicaid can pave the way for more and more states-even low-union-density states-to follow suit with successful Medicaid ballot initiatives. For example, the Fairness Project, funded by the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West in California, was instrumental in getting Medicaid expansion initiatives on ballots in Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska in 2018; all three initiatives passed (Kodjak 2018). Recently, union-backed ballot initiatives have also met with success in other low- and medium-union-density states such as Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma (Kliff 2020; Levey 2018).

It is worth noting that the data underlying Figures G and H also underscore an important connection between unionization rates, health outcomes, economic security, and racial disparities: Many of the low- and medium-density-states that have the highest shares of uninsured residents, and many of the states that have not expanded Medicaid, also have relatively high concentrations of Black workers.

For example, out of the 17 low-union-density states we categorize, 10, or about 59%, had a share of Black workers in the labor force higher than the national average in 2020 (BLS 2021). This relative concentration persists within the subcategories we examine as well; for example, of the 12 low-union-density states that had not expanded Medicaid as of 2019, about two-thirds have a Black working population above the national average in 2020 (the national Black labor force share was about 12.6%). Given the ugly racist origins of "right-to-work" anti-union laws, it is not surprising that these states with relatively large Black populations have continued to suppress unions and worker collective action (Ros n.d.).

Conversely, the surprising victory of Medicaid expansion in low-union-density, high-Black-population states such as Louisiana and Virginia suggests that when unions advocate for popular issues across the nation, the momentum can spread, and further victories can contribute to lowering racial and economic disparities despite the odds and even in states with a low union presence.

Union-supported Medicaid expansions are one more example of a "spillover effect" and channel through which unionization benefits not only union members, but also members of the broader community.

Paid sick and family leave

The final personal well-being metric we examine is access to paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave. Specifically, we look at which states have passed laws to ensure that workers have access to these important benefits. Paid sick leave allows workers to take time off when they are sick without worry over loss of income, while paid family and medical leave allows workers to take extended time off to address a serious health condition, to care for a new child, or to care for an ill family member (Gould 2018). Paid sick and family leave is necessary not only for physical health, but for mental health as well-mitigating the stress of illness or family change by providing economic and job security during extended time off work. Significant research has shown, for example, that paid parental leave significantly improves maternal mental health by allowing recovery and adjustment time (Romig and Bryant 2021).

Thanks to unions' collective bargaining successes, union workers have greater access to paid sick days than nonunion workers: More than nine in 10 workers-93%-covered by a union contract have access to paid sick days, compared with only 75% of nonunion workers (BLS 2020). This means that 25% of nonunion workers do not have access to even a single day of paid sick leave. Moreover, access to paid sick time is vastly unequal-94% of the highest-wage workers have access to paid sick days while only 31% of the lowest-paid workers do. Many states and localities are beginning to address this inequity by passing laws requiring employers to provide paid sick leave.

The situation is even bleaker for workers who need family and medical leave-whether unionized or not. Only 20% of all workers have access to paid family and medical leave, meaning that nearly 80% of workers do not (BLS 2020 Table 31). This presents workers with a choice between their careers and their caregiving responsibilities precisely when they need their paychecks the most, such as following the birth of a child or when they or a loved one falls ill. To ensure workers do not have to make that difficult choice, we need a national paid family leave program. However, in the absence of such a program, several states have enacted paid family leave laws.

Unions have played an integral role in coalition campaigns to pass paid sick day and family leave laws at the state and local levels, making paid leave a key policy plank alongside higher wages (Brown 2013; MacGillvary and Jacobs 2018; Salsberg 2018; Thoet 2016).

Figure I shows that nearly half of high-union-density states have passed both paid sick and family leave; in contrast, none of the low-union-density states have. While the majority of U.S. states still, unfortunately, do not have either paid sick or family leave laws, the tangible impact that unions have had in their advocacy for such laws is evident in the pattern of progress so far.

Democratic well-being

The final category we examine is democratic well-being, specifically the right to vote. Recent sustained attacks on this fundamental right threaten to undermine democratic stability. We look at legislation restricting voting and find that there is a strong correlation between voting restrictions and low union density.

The right to vote is a core tenet of our democracy, won and enshrined after years of sustained protest and activism. Yet many states continue to take actions that disproportionately disenfranchise people of color (Johnson and Feldman 2020). The number of voter suppression laws enacted across the country is high and rising, and the voting rights of all citizens-especially the voting rights of people of color-are under attack. States have passed restrictions on when and where early voting can take place, when and how people can register to vote, who can vote by mail, and what types of identification are required to vote, among other forms of voter suppression. These barriers to voting have disproportionately impacted racial minorities, poor people, and young and old voters, all of whom are less likely to have the accepted voter ID (Brennan Center n.d.).

Figure J shows the relationship between union density and voter suppression legislation in the 50 states. (Note that D.C.-which is part of the medium-union-density group in other charts-is not included in the voter restrictions data.) A majority of low- and medium-union-density states have passed at least one voter restriction bill, while the vast majority of high-union-density states have passed none. Among high-union-density states, 13 out of 17 did not pass any voter restrictions between 2011 and 2019, while only seven of the medium-union-density states and five of the low-union-density states can claim this distinction. Nine medium-union-density states and 12 low-union-density states passed voting restrictions. A total of 26 voter suppression laws were passed among the 17 low-union-density states between 2011 and 2019.

Unions have, both historically and in the present, been central to the fight to protect voting rights. Historically, labor and workers' rights were a central focus of the civil rights movement and went hand in hand with voting rights (Moore 2021). A. Philip Randolph, one of the leaders of the March on Washington in 1963, was also a leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), one of the most influential all-Black labor unions. In the 1960s, the AFL-CIO lobbied and offered testimony for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In March 2021, after Georgia passed voter suppression bill SB 202, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka wrote that voter suppression laws were "aimed at silencing working people of color across the state" (AFL-CIO 2021).

Through long-standing advocacy and work to protect the vote, unions have linked voting rights to workers' rights. To this day, unions continue to mobilize workers to vote. Union voter mobilization has broad effects, including helping to determine which political leaders are elected and what occupational backgrounds they come from. Sojourner (2012) finds that unions promote election of people from working- and middle-class jobs into political leadership.

Conclusion

In this report, we have sought to demonstrate that the benefits of unionization extend far beyond the workplace. High union density is consistently associated with a much broader set of positive spillover effects across multiple dimensions. Not only do unions directly benefit the workers they represent, but their political advocacy helps to drive an array of strongly positive outcomes more broadly, especially in states where unions represent a sizeable share of the workforce. These positive outcomes include wage increases, better health benefits, easier access to unemployment insurance, access to paid sick leave, access to paid family and medical leave, and unrestricted voting opportunities.

However, union density levels across the country are not as high as they could be. While nearly half of all nonunion workers say they want a union in their workplace, only 12% of all workers are covered by a union contract (Brenan 2021; EPI 2021d). Current law places too many obstacles in the way of workers trying to organize and gives employers too much power to interfere with workers' free choice (Mishel, Rhinehart, and Windham 2020). It is therefore critical that policymakers enact reforms that restore a meaningful right to organize and collectively bargain. One simple way to help accomplish this would be to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which will help restore the right to organize and give workers access to a union and the well-being it promotes.

Unionization can be a key driving force as we continue to build an equitable recovery and invest in the creation of jobs with good wages and access to benefits (Hersh 2021). Building union density is not just a worker or workplace issue, but it is also a mechanism to uplift families and communities. The relationship we have demonstrated between high union density and higher household incomes, access to health care and paid leave, and fewer voting restrictions highlights the importance of protecting the right of workers to organize. This right could be a fundamental component in strengthening economic security, quality of life, civil and voting rights, and racial justice in our communities.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank William E. Spriggs, whose research inspired this report; John Schmitt for his thoughtful input; and Daniel Perez for his research assistance.

Note

1. The extracts are publicly available. See EPI 2021a.

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Economic Policy Institute (EPI). 2021a. Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0.21, https://microdata.epi.org/.

Economic Policy Institute (EPI). 2021b. " Minimum Wage Tracker." Updated August 2021.

Economic Policy Institute (EPI). 2021c. " The Productivity-Pay Gap." Updated August 2021.

Economic Policy Institute (EPI). 2021d. "Union Coverage" (data set). State of Working America Data Library. Last updated February 2021.

Economic Policy Institute (EPI). 2021e. Unions Help Reduce Disparities and Strengthen Our Democracy (fact sheet). April 23, 2021.

Farber, Henry S., Daniel Herbst, Ilyana Kuziemko, and Suresh Naidu. 2021. " Unions and Inequality over the Twentieth Century: New Evidence from Survey Data." Quarterly Journal of Economics 136, no. 3: 1325-1385.

Feigenbaum, James, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, and Vanessa Williamson. 2019. "From the Bargaining Table to the Ballot Box: Political Effects of Right to Work Laws." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper no. 24259, February 2019. https://doi.org/10.3386/w24259.

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Unions are not only good for workers, they're good for communities and for democracy: High unionization levels are associated with positive outcomes across multiple indicators of economic, personal, and democratic well-being

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In this report, we document the correlation between higher levels of unionization in states and a range of economic, personal, and democratic well-being measures. In the same way unions give workers a voice at work, with a direct impact on wages and working conditions, the data suggest that unions also give workers a voice in shaping their communities.

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This article informs readers what a union is, but also how unions helps workers and how they improve jobs. The article also gives statistics on how many women and men works are exercising there right to be represented by unions. Lastly, the articles state what unions can do to support you and how they do it. They also provide more statistics.

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Download PDF Press release

Americans have always joined together-whether in parent teacher associations or local community organizations-to solve problems and make changes that improve their lives and their communities. Through unions, people join together to strive for improvements at the place where they spend a large portion of their waking hours: work.

The freedom of workers to join together in unions and negotiate with employers (in a process known as collective bargaining) is widely recognized as a fundamental human right across the globe. In the United States, this right is protected by the U.S. Constitution and U.S. law and is supported by a majority of Americans. 1

Over 16 million working women and men in the United States are exercising this right-these 16 million workers are represented by unions. Overall, more than one in nine U.S. workers are represented by unions. This representation makes organized labor one of the largest institutions in America. 2

By providing data on union coverage, activities, and impacts, this report helps explain how unions fit into the economy today; how they affect workers, communities, occupations and industries, and the country at large; and why collective bargaining is essential for a fair and prosperous economy and a vibrant democracy. It also describes how decades of anti-union campaigns and policies have made it much harder for working people to use their collective voice to sustain their standard of living.

'Collective bargaining' is how working people gain a voice at work and the power to shape their working lives

Almost everyone has at one point felt unheard or powerless as an employee. Joining a union simply means that you and your colleagues have a say because you negotiate important elements of employment conditions together. That could mean securing wage increases, better access to health care, workplace safety enhancements, and more reasonable and predictable hours. Through collective bargaining negotiations, the union also works with management to develop a process for settling disputes that employees and their managers are unable to settle individually.

Once a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is agreed to, union representatives work with employees and with management to make sure the rights and obligations spelled out in the agreement are honored. And they represent workers in high-stakes situations, such as when a safety violation has resulted in injury. By these means, collective bargaining gives workers a say in the terms of their employment, the security of knowing that there are specific processes for handling work-related grievances, and a path to solving problems.

To cover expenses for negotiating contracts, defending workers' rights, resolving disputes, and providing support to members of the bargaining unit, unions collect dues.

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935 and amendments govern private-sector unions and collective bargaining. While states generally have no jurisdiction over private-sector unions, the NLRA as amended does allow states to enact certain laws that govern fees paid by workers in unionized private workplaces (discussed later in this report).

Nearly half (48.1 percent) of workers covered by a union contract are public-sector workers. Collective bargaining among federal workers is covered by the Federal Labor Relations Act of 1978 (FLRA). State laws (enacted from the late 1950s forward) govern state and local government employee unions. Each state has its own set of laws that govern collective bargaining for state and local public employees. Some states allow the full set of collective bargaining rights, others (approximately one-fifth) prohibit collective bargaining, and still others limit some activities, such as the right to strike or the right to collect dues automatically during payroll processing. About one in 10 states have no state law addressing collective bargaining rights in the public sector. 3

Union workers are diverse, just like America

The typical union member is often thought to be a worker on a manufacturing line in the Midwest. Manufacturing does have a strong union tradition, but people join unions in many industries and occupations. Union members include dental hygienists in Wisconsin, graduate students in Massachusetts, firefighters in Illinois, television writers and scientists in California, security guards in Washington, D.C., digital journalists in New York, and major league baseball players in Georgia and other states. 4

It is also true that, in the past, union workers were predominantly white men. But as of 2016, roughly 10.6 million of the 16.3 million workers covered by a union contract are women and/or people of color. 5

About two-thirds (65.4 percent) of workers age 18 to 64 and covered by a union contract are women and/or people of color.

Almost half (46.3 percent) are women.

More than a third (35.8 percent) are black, Hispanic, Asian, or other nonwhite workers.

Black workers are the most likely to be represented by unions: 14.5 percent of black workers age 18 to 64 are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, compared with 12.5 percent of white workers and 10.1 percent of Hispanic workers.

Unions represent workers of all levels of education

More than half (54.5 percent) of workers age 18 to 64 and covered by a union contract have an associate degree or more education.

Two out of five (42.4 percent) have a bachelor's degree or more education.

Union workers hail from a variety of sectors, but the biggest share work in education or health services

Nearly two in five workers (39.8 percent) age 18 to 64 and covered by a union contract work in education or health services.

One in seven workers (13.9 percent) covered by a union contract work in public administration.

One in eight workers (12.2 percent) covered by a union contract work in transportation and utilities.

One in 11 workers (9.1 percent) covered by a union contract work in manufacturing.

Unions are most widespread in public administration and transportation industries

Because industries vary in size, industries with the highest numbers of union workers aren't always the industries with the highest union coverage rate. The five industries with the highest shares of 18- to 64-year-old workers covered by a union contract (the "union coverage rate") are:

Public administration (33.2 percent)

Transportation and utilities (27.3 percent)

Education and health services (20.0 percent)

Construction (15.7 percent)

Information (10.6 percent), which includes publishing, motion pictures, broadcasting, telecommunications, data processing, and other communications services

Unions are thriving in diverse workplaces-including 'new economy' workplaces

Working people join unions to have some say over their jobs and their workplaces. Given the self-determination unions afford, it is no surprise that they are thriving in some of the companies, industries, and occupations undergoing the most change.

Television writers in Hollywood. Streaming services, cable offerings, and multiple viewing platforms are fueling what is referred to as "the New Golden Age of Television." In 2016 the six major media companies that dominate film and television (CBS, Comcast, Disney, Fox, Time Warner, and Viacom) reported almost $51 billion in operating profits. Those profits have doubled in the last decade and continue to grow. Much of the industry's success is attributable to the roughly 13,000 men and women who write television shows and films and who belong to the Writers Guild of America. Despite this contribution to the industry's record profitability, TV writers' incomes were in decline. WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (which represents the studios, networks, and independent producers) recently agreed on a collective bargaining contract that gave writers increases in compensation and digital residuals and preserved broad health care benefits.

Graduate students and adjunct faculty working at universities across the country. More than 64,000 graduate student employees are unionized at 28 institutions of higher education in the public sector, including universities in California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Washington. While graduate teaching assistants in some public universities have practiced collective bargaining for nearly 50 years, the law has recently opened up the possibility in private universities: teaching and research assistants for universities such Yale, Brandeis University, Columbia, and Tufts University are now organizing for better compensation and working conditions.

Professional and technical employees in the Washington, D.C., region and throughout the United States and Canada. The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) includes more than 80,000 women and men in professional, technical, administrative, and associated occupations in the United States and Canada. Members work for a wide range of federal, public, and private agencies and companies. They include administrative law judges working for the Social Security Administration, scientists working for NASA, engineers and technicians working for General Electric and Boeing, and engineers, architects, and project managers working for Santa Clara County, California. The Economic Policy Institute is one of many unionized Washington-based nonprofits (including the Center for American Progress and DC Jobs With Justice) represented by IFPTE Local 70.

United Parcel Service (UPS) drivers, hub workers, pilots, and mechanics. UPS is the country's largest private-sector, unionized employer. Of 440,000 workers worldwide, nearly 250,000 (mostly drivers and hub workers) are represented by the Teamsters. UPS pilots are represented by the Independent Pilots Association, and UPS mechanics are represented by the International Association of Machinists. According to research firm Brand Keys, UPS is number one in parcel delivery loyalty, ahead of nonunionized FedEx.

Maine lobster fishers. The Maine Lobstering Union formed in 2013 after a glut in the spring of 2012 that drove the "boat price" for lobster down about 33 percent to a 20-year low. It was the first fishing union in Maine in more than 75 years. While people who fish for a living in Canada and off the Washington and Alaska coasts have been organized for years, the 500-member Maine Lobstering Union seeks to close the growing gap between what consumers pay to eat lobster and what lobster fishers get. So the union is buying a wholesale lobster business. Union lobster fishers who sell to the union co-op will get market price for their lobster but also a share of cooperative profits.

Cafeteria and other contract workers in Silicon Valley. In July 2017, more than 500 cafeteria workers who serve food at Facebook's Menlo Park, California, campus joined Local 19 of UNITE HERE, a labor union of more than 265,000 hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino workers in the United States and Canada. The Facebook cafeteria workers cannot afford housing in the extremely high-cost Bay Area and are seeking higher wages and more affordable health benefits from their employer, Flagship Facility Services. According to the San Jose Mercury News, "thousands of contract workers such as janitors, security guards, and shuttle bus drivers at other major Silicon Valley tech firms, including Apple, Intel, and Google," have already unionized. The effort to unionize these workers is being led by Working Partnerships USA and the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council but counts other faith, community, and labor groups (including Communications Workers of America, Teamsters, and the Service Employees International Union) as partners.

Digital journalists. The changing media landscape has been a recent catalyst for newsrooms to organize. Since 2014, editorial employees at many media outlets-including In These Times, Vice, Gizmodo Media Group (formerly Gawker Media), Salon, The American Prospect, Fusion, The Root, and ThinkProgress-have formed unions. The Huffington Post, for example, ratified a contract in January 2017 that has provisions addressing editorial independence, the need to enhance newsroom diversity, comp time, discipline and dismissal policies, and severance in the event of layoffs.

Unions strengthen democracy by giving workers a voice in policy debates

Managers, business owners, and CEOs organize to advocate for their economic interests. That's what chambers of commerce, business associations, and national trade associations do. Unions provide working people who are not executives or company owners with an opportunity to get their voices heard in policy debates that shape their lives.

Americans have a constitutionally protected right to associate and ask for change. Americans join together to change speed limits, school policy, laws governing gun ownership and drug possession and use, and more. And when Americans have wanted to make the economy fairer and more responsive to the needs of workers, they have traditionally joined together in unions to do so.

Unions fought for-and work to strengthen-many of the humane standards and norms that protect and uplift Americans today. These essential laws and programs include Social Security, child labor laws, antidiscrimination laws, health and safety laws, Unemployment Insurance, compensation for workers who get hurt on the job, the 40-hour workweek, and the federal minimum wage. 14 Unions were a major force behind all the Great Society laws on discrimination, housing, and voting rights.

As union coverage has declined and the voice of workers has correspondingly diminished, many of the key workplace standards past generations counted on have been eroded. For instance, there has been an erosion of overtime pay protection, slashing of workers' compensation programs, and a decline in the real value of the minimum wage, which is lower now than it was in 1968. 15

Unions reduce inequality and are essential for low- and middle-wage workers' ability to obtain a fair share of economic growth

The spread of collective bargaining that followed the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935 led to decades of faster and fairer economic growth that persisted until the late 1970s. But since the 1970s, declining unionization has fueled rising inequality and stalled economic progress for the broad American middle class. Figures A and B show that when unions are weak, the highest incomes go up even more, but when unions are strong, middle incomes go up.

Research by EPI and other institutions shows this correlation is no accident. First, unions have strong positive effects not only on the wages of union workers but also on the wages of comparable nonunion workers, as unions set standards for entire industries and occupations (these union and nonunion wage boosts are explored in detail in the next section of this report). Second, unions make wages among occupations more equal because they give a larger wage boost to low- and middle-wage occupations than to high-wage occupations. Third, unions make wages of workers with similar characteristics more equal because of the standards unions set. Fourth, unions have historically been more likely to organize middle-wage than high-wage workers, which lowers inequality by closing gaps between, say, blue-collar and white-collar workers. Finally, the union wage boost is largest for low-wage workers and larger at the middle than at the highest wage levels, larger for black and Hispanic workers than for white workers, and larger for those with lower levels of education-wage increases for these groups help narrow wage inequalities. 16

We know how big a force for equality unions are by looking at how much their decline has contributed to inequality between middle- and high-wage workers: union decline can explain one-third of the rise in wage inequality among men and one-fifth of the rise in wage inequality among women from 1973 to 2007. Among men, the erosion of collective bargaining has been the largest single factor driving a wedge between middle- and high-wage workers. 17

Unions raise wages for both union and nonunion workers

For typical workers, hourly pay growth has been sluggish for decades, rising 0.3 percent per year or 9.9 percent in all from 1979 to 2015. If pay had risen with productivity during that period, as it did in the decades before 1979, pay would have gone up 63.8 percent. 18 But pay for typical workers is not rising at this clip because ever-larger shares of economic growth are going to the highest wage earners. Income growth for the highest 1 percent of wage earners rose by nearly 190 percent between 1979 and 2015, meaning that the highest-earning 1 percent have claimed a radically disproportionate share of income growth. 19

Working people in unions use their power in numbers to secure a fairer share of the income they create. Employers who have to bargain with workers collectively cannot pursue a strategy of "divide and conquer" among their workers. Workers who are empowered by forming a union raise wages for union and nonunion workers alike. As an economic sector becomes more unionized, nonunion employers pay more to retain qualified workers and norms of higher pay and better conditions become standard. For example, if a union hospital is across town from a nonunion hospital and the two hospitals are competing for workers, then the nonunion workers will benefit from the presence of the union hospital.

Unions also raise pay for workers by helping to enforce labor standards, like guarding against wage theft. Union workers are more knowledgeable about their rights, and union representatives communicate when needed with government enforcement agencies, which enhances enforcement of wage violations. For example, workers covered by a union are half as likely to be the victims of minimum wage violations (i.e., to be paid an effective hourly rate that is below the minimum wage). This form of wage theft is costing workers over $15 billion a year, causing many families to fall below the poverty line.

When union density is high, nonunion workers benefit from higher wages. When the share of workers who are union members is relatively high, as it was in 1979, wages of nonunion workers are higher. For example, had union density remained at its 1979 level, weekly wages of nonunion men in the private sector would be 5 percent higher (that's an additional $2,704 in earnings for year-round workers), while wages for nonunion men in the private sector without a college education would be 8 percent, or $3,016 per year, higher. (These estimates look at what wages would have been in 2013 had union density remained at its 1979 levels).

Where unions remain strong, unions have an ability to raise wages sector-wide. An example is the hospitality industry in Orlando, Florida. Negotiations between six local affiliates of the Services Trade Council Union (STCU) and Disney World in 2014 led to wage increases for union members to at least $10 an hour starting in 2016. These local affiliates represent housekeepers, lifeguards, cast members, and other service workers. Disney then extended the raises to all its 70,000 Orlando employees, including nonunion employees. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the wage increases prompted much of Orlando's hospitality and retail sector, including Westgate Resorts, to raise wages.

Where unions are strong, wages are higher for typical workers-union and nonunion members alike. Compensation of typical (median) workers grows far faster-four times faster-in states with the smallest declines in unionization than it does in states with the largest declines in unionization.

Unions bring living wages to low-wage jobs. Unions have transformed once-low-wage jobs in hospitality, nursing, and janitorial services into positions with living wages and opportunities for advancement. For example, after unionizing, dishwashers in Las Vegas hotels made $4 per hour more than the national average for that job, and they were offered excellent benefits. And hospitality workers in unionized Las Vegas enjoy a much higher living standard than those in Reno, where unions are weaker. In Houston, a 2006 first-ever union contract for 5,300 janitors resulted in a 47 percent pay increase and an increase in guaranteed weekly hours of work.

By joining together, working people can transform not just their workplaces but sectors and communities. Here are two examples of how today's workers are using their "power in numbers" to raise wages in the workplace and for all working people:

Raising the minimum wage for food service and other low-wage workers. Millions of Americans who work full time are not paid enough to make ends meet; many rely on public assistance, including food stamps, housing subsidies, or cash assistance to pay their bills. Food preparers, for example, earn a median hourly wage of $9.09; home health aides earn $10.87. A big reason that low-wage workers are struggling is the erosion of the value of the federal minimum wage, which, at $7.25 per hour, is worth 25 percent less in inflation-adjusted terms than it was 50 years ago. The Service Employees International Union was an early and critical backer and remains a strong supporter of the Fight for $15, a campaign to raise wages for low-wage workers by enacting minimum wages increases in communities and states around the nation. Begun in New York and Chicago in 2012, the campaign has led to laws establishing $15 minimum wages in New York, California, the District of Columbia, and 21 cities and counties. The Fight for $15 movement has also added momentum to successful campaigns for smaller minimum wage increases in 18 other states since 2014. (Through the campaign, some workers are also seeking paid sick time so that all workers, regardless of their job or wage level, can take paid time off when they are sick or need to care for a family member.) While many business owners have endorsed minimum wage increases, business owners who oppose raising the minimum wage have a voice too, through such groups as the National Restaurant Association, which lobbies in Washington, D.C., and in state capitals against minimum wage increases and paid sick days.

Eliminating subminimum wages for farmworkers. In June 2017, Familias Unidas por La Justicia (FUJ) and Sakuma Brothers Berry Farm, one of the Pacific Northwest's largest berry growers, signed a collective bargaining agreement that ensures good wages for the more than 500 immigrant farmworkers who harvest berries at the farm. The contract ensures that the berry pickers-many of whom had been earning less than the state minimum wage of $9.47 an hour under the former piece-rate system (based on how many pounds of berries they picked)-now earn at least a minimum wage of $12; the revised piece-rate system it establishes seeks to deliver an average wage of $15 an hour. The contract is the culmination of four years of organizing, first as a workers organization and then as a recognized independent union in September 2016. Through strikes, informational pickets, and other efforts, FUJ gained national support for its successful efforts to change a host of practices at the farm, including 12-hour-plus workdays. FUJ also countered Sakuma Brothers' attempt in 2014 to replace its workforce with workers entering the United States under the H-2A temporary visa program.

Unions help raise wages for women and lessen racial wage gaps

Unions help raise the wages of women and black and Hispanic workers-whose wages have historically lagged behind those of white men-by establishing pay "transparency" (workers know what other workers are making), correcting salary discrepancies, establishing clearer terms for internal processes such as raises and promotions, and helping workers who have been discriminated against achieve equity.

Unions also narrow the racial wage gaps. Black workers, for example, are more likely than white workers to be in a union and are more likely to be low- and middle-wage workers, who get a bigger pay boost for being in a union than do higher-wage workers. This effect is an important tool in closing the black-white wage gap, which has actually grown somewhat since 1979, largely due to growth in the gap since 2000-while wages since 2000 have stagnated for both black and white workers, the decline in wage growth has been larger for black workers. 29 Today, black workers are, on average, paid 85 cents for every dollar paid to white workers of the same gender and with similar education, experience, and location of residence. 30

Unions help raise women's pay. Hourly wages for women represented by unions are 9.2 percent higher on average than for nonunionized women with comparable characteristics.

Unions raise wages in the female-dominated service occupations. Union-represented workers in service occupations (which include food service and janitorial services) make 87.0 percent more in total compensation and 56.1 percent more in wages than their nonunion counterparts.

Unions help close wage gaps for black and Hispanic workers. Black and Hispanic workers get a larger boost from unionization than their white counterparts. Black workers, both male and female, are more likely than white workers to be covered by collective bargaining and the wage boost they get from being covered by collective bargaining is above average. The result is that collective bargaining lifts wages of black workers closer to those of their white counterparts. Hispanic workers have slightly lower union coverage than white workers but have much higher union wage advantages: thus wage gaps between Hispanic workers and their white counterparts are also smaller because of collective bargaining.

Unionized black workers earn even more in some sectors. Unionized black construction workers in New York City earn 36.1 percent more than nonunion black construction workers in New York City.

These data showing that unions raise wages for all workers-and especially for women and black and Hispanic workers-do not erase the problematic historical episodes of sexism and racism practiced by unions. Unions are an American institution, and like nearly every other American institution their past includes clear instances of gender and racial discrimination. But there has been significant progress in increasing the shares of women represented by unions and in union leadership. There has also been significant progress in the racial integration of unions and in ensuring that nonwhite workers have equitable access to apprenticeships, as illustrated by the progress in New York City construction unions. 35 AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka recently claimed, with justification, that "the labor movement is the most integrated institution in America." 36 Labor leaders are calling for broad and sustained attention to addressing racism and sexism where they continue to violate labor's democratic ideals. 37

Unions improve the health and safety practices of workplaces

More than 4,800 workers are killed on the job every year. An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 more die of occupational diseases each year, and the estimated number of work-related injuries and illnesses exceeds 7 million. 38 Unions have always championed worker safety by investing in programs to educate workers about on-the-job hazards and working with employers to reduce worker injuries and the time lost due to injury. 39 In unionized workplaces, workers generally have a right to involve a union representative in injury and fatality investigations, which gives workers a voice in their own safety. And researchers have suggested that unions create safer workplaces; because union workers are protected by their union from repercussions for reporting safety issues, they are more likely to report not only injuries but near misses. This increased reporting can lead to a reduction in work hazards. 40 The union contribution to safety is particularly important because government health and safety regulations are being weakened. 41

Mine workers in union mines are less likely to be severely injured or die on the job. Unionization is associated with a substantial and statistically significant drop in traumatic injuries and in fatalities in underground bituminous coal mines from 1993 to 2010.

Unions ensure that employers are held accountable. Tragedies arise when employers cannot be held accountable. Miners in the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia tried and failed to a join a union three times, according to In These Times. Each time, at least 65 percent of the miners signed cards saying they wanted to be members of a union. And each time, these workers were repeatedly intimidated by management at Massey Energy, which owns the mine: Massey CEO Don Blankenship delayed the election process for months while he threatened to close the mine if the workers voted for a union-and the workers ended up voting against joining a union to save their jobs. On April 5, 2010, an explosion collapsed the mine's roof, killing 29 miners and injuring two. In the aftermath, reports surfaced that the nonunion mine had a record of safety violations and that coal miners who worked in the mine knew about the dangerous working conditions. Blankenship was found guilty on a charge of conspiracy to willfully violate mine health and safety standards and was sentenced to a year in prison.

Here are some specific ways unions have improved safety in the workplace by representing workers' concerns in public and testifying before Congress and state legislatures:

Nurses win violence prevention standards. In the past decade or so, the rate of reported violence against health care workers (who make up 9 percent of the nation's workforce) has more than doubled. The increase stems from cuts in state funds for mental health services and hospital budget cutbacks thinning the ranks of nurses and security guards. National Nurses United (NNU), which represents more than 160,000 nurses across the country, has fought for and won workplace violence prevention standards in California, Minnesota, and Massachusetts. NNU is now petitioning the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for a formal workplace violence prevention standard that would apply nationwide.

Laborers, autoworkers, and others secure protections for workers from deadly silica dust. Roughly 2.3 million workers are exposed to silica dust, which causes silicosis (an incurable and often deadly lung disease), lung cancer, other respiratory diseases, and kidney disease. Silica dust is produced by grinding stone or masonry in mines or on construction sites. Although the hazards of silica dust have been known for at least a century, existing regulations limiting exposure were outdated and were not keeping up with worker exposure to silica in new industries such as stone countertop fabrication and hydraulic fracturing. A broad section of the labor movement-including the United Automobile Workers and the Laborers' International Union of North America-helped persuade OSHA to issue a new rule that reduces workers' exposure to silica.

Firefighters get relief from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Firefighters who develop PTSD after witnessing repeated trauma on the job don't always have recourse if the disorder means they cannot work while they seek treatment. When independent studies showed that post-traumatic stress rates are on the rise for Texas firefighters, the Texas State Association of Fire Fighters (TSAFF) launched an education campaign for state lawmakers leading to legislation to improve workers' compensation coverage for Texas first responders diagnosed with line-of-duty-related PTSD. The legislation (HB 1983) was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 1, 2017.

Unions support strong families with better benefits and due process

About six in 10 adults (63 percent) say the average working person in the United States has less job security now than 20 or 30 years ago. 50 And the lack of paid sick days is depriving many workers of funds needed for basic necessities-an especially difficult problem for the lowest-wage workers, about three-fourths of whom don't get any paid sick days. 51 Uncertain work hours, last-minute shift changes, and other scheduling practices are also hurting families. And research shows that jobs that are insecure, unpredictable, and risky also affect communities and society as a whole. 52

But working people in unionized workplaces are more likely to have benefits that strengthen families and improve job security and predictability. (Some of the items in the list below provide union-nonunion comparisons not adjusted for personal characteristics and other factors, while some, where indicated, provide adjusted comparisons. 53)

Union workers are more likely to be covered by employer-provided health insurance. More than nine in 10-94 percent-of workers covered by a union contract have access to employer-sponsored health benefits, compared with just 67 percent of nonunion workers. When adjustments are made for other characteristics that may affect benefits coverage-such as sector (public or private), industry, region, employee status (full- or part-time), and establishment size-union workers are 18.3 percent more likely to be covered.

Union employers contribute more to their health care benefits. Union employers pay 77.4 percent more (per hour worked) toward their employees' health coverage (providing better benefits for a greater share of workers) than comparable nonunion employers. Occupations with higher-than-average union impact on employer-provided health care include transportation, services, construction, extraction, and installation/maintenance/repair.

Union workers have greater access to paid sick days. Almost nine in 10-87 percent-of workers covered by a union contract have access to paid sick days, compared with 69 percent of nonunion workers. Almost all-97 percent-of union workers in state and local government have paid sick days, compared with 86 percent of their nonunion peers. In the private sector, 79 percent of union workers have paid sick days compared with 67 percent of their nonunion peers.

Union workers are more likely to have paid vacation and holidays. In the private sector, 89 percent of workers covered by a union contract get paid vacation and paid holidays, whereas 75 percent of nonunion workers get paid vacation and 76 percent get paid holidays. For workers overall (private and public), 80 percent of union workers get paid holidays while 75 percent of nonunion workers do. Equal shares of union and nonunion workers (74 percent) get paid vacation. When adjustments are made for other characteristics that may affect benefits coverage-such as sector (public or private), industry, region, employee status (full- or part-time), and establishment size-union workers are 3.2 percent more likely to have paid leave.

Employers contribute more to paid vacation and holidays for union workers than nonunion workers. Union employers contribute 11.4 percent more toward paid vacation and holidays for their workers than do comparable nonunion employers. Industries and occupations with higher-than-average employer contributions toward paid vacation and holidays include production, transportation, office and administrative support, service occupations, and construction.

Unions provide due process. Private employment in every state except for Montana is generally at will, with employers free to dismiss workers for almost any reason, except for reasons specified by law (e.g., on account of race, religion, disability, or other identities that are protected classes). Union contracts have provisions that allow workers to be fired, but only when the employer shows a proper, documented performance-related reason for dismissing the worker. Usually, contracts include a transparent process for disciplining workers, and the employer-except in extreme cases-must follow that process and give a worker a chance to improve performance before the employer moves to dismiss the worker.

Union workers have more input into the number of hours they work. Almost half (46 percent) of nonunion workers say they have little or no input into the number of hours they work each week, compared with less than a quarter (22 percent) of union workers.

Union workers get more advance notice of their work schedules. More than one in three workers (34.4 percent) who belong to a union get at least a week's advance notice of their work schedules, whereas less than one in four nonunion workers (23.2 percent) do. (These calculations exclude workers whose schedules never change.)

Unions also bring better benefits to the broader labor force. Here is a specific example of how unions have helped secure crucial benefits for workers by taking their concerns to the lawmakers and to the public at large:

Winning paid sick days for workers. There is no federal law that ensures all workers are able to earn paid sick days in the United States. For workers who fall ill or whose families depend on them to provide care in the event of an illness, this means sick days can be incredibly costly. This is a particular problem for low-wage workers, 73 percent of whom have no opportunity to earn paid sick days. Unions have participated in coalitions to enact paid sick days laws. For example, voter outreach by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) helped win passage of a paid sick days law in Oregon, while SEIU was a key player in enacting the nation's strongest paid sick days policy, in Massachusetts.

Unions are good for workers' retirement security

Few Americans have enough to live on in retirement. A key part of the story of rising retirement income insecurity is a shift from traditional defined-benefit (DB) pensions that provide a guaranteed income to defined-contribution (DC) plans-401(k)s or similar plans-that force workers to bear investment risk without providing any guarantees. 58 The shift from pensions to 401(k)s has also exacerbated inequality, benefiting some very wealthy families but leaving the vast majority unprepared for retirement. Nearly half of all families headed by an adult age 32-61 have zero retirement savings. 59

Union members have an advantage in retirement security, both because union members are more likely to have retirement benefits and because, when they do, the benefits are better than what comparable nonunion workers receive: union members are more likely to have pensions, and employer contributions to the plans (whether pensions or DC plans) tend to be higher.

Ninety percent of union workers participate in a retirement plan (of any kind), compared with 75 percent of nonunion workers.

Seventy-four percent of union workers who have pensions participate in a traditional defined benefit pension, compared with 15 percent of nonunion workers.

Traditional defined benefit pensions are especially important to black workers, who derive more than a fifth of their household income from these pensions in retirement.

Union employers (when adjustments are made for various employer characteristics) are 22.5 percent more likely to offer an employer-provided retirement plan and, on average, to spend 56 percent more on retirement for their employees than do comparable nonunion employers.

Unions create a path to sharing knowledge and solving problems

Because they are on the front lines, working people often have some of the best information on how to improve their workplaces and make their workplaces safer and more productive. Unions provide the means for workers to share their knowledge about what works and what doesn't-without fear of retaliation. Unionized workplaces also provide their workers with more transparency about company finances and processes that can help shape responses to problems.

Here are a few examples of specific ways unions have sought to improve their workplaces:

Shifting from teacher punishment to professional development. The Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) system created by the Toledo Federation of Teachers (TFT) in the early 1980s transformed teacher evaluation and professional development in Toledo and subsequently spread to other cities and counties in Ohio and throughout the country, including Boston; Rochester, New York; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Montgomery County, Maryland. Under the PAR program, new teachers-and experienced teachers who have been struggling-work with "consulting teachers" who provide mentoring and evaluation. Only after that process do principals get involved in evaluation. Veteran teachers may be referred to the program or seek it out on their own. Districts that have adopted PAR say that it strengthens instruction, increases teacher leadership, and helps strengthen the relationship between the district and the teachers union.

Training manufacturing workers in new technology skills. Labor unions and the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute have been key partners in implementing a program that trains workers to operate more technical and highly specialized manufacturing processes. The Industrial Manufacturing Technicians (IMT) apprenticeship program began in Milwaukee and is expanding across eight states. The program, operated by the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP)/BIG STEP, provides workers with 2,700 hours of on-the-job training and 260 hours with technical college instructors. Labor union partners include the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the United Automobile Workers (UAW), and the United Steelworkers (USW). "Union support ensures that the firm-specific design of the program is responsive to worker feedback as well as to lessons learned from IMT programs at other employers that the union covers."

Workers still want unions but are being thwarted by aggressive campaigns and lobbying that have eroded private-sector union membership

Almost half (48 percent) of workers polled said they'd vote to create a union in their workplace tomorrow if they got the chance. 67 But workers are being deprived of that opportunity. Because unions and collective bargaining are effective at giving workers power, they are opposed by corporate interests and policymakers representing the highest-earning 1 percent. 68 For decades, fierce corporate opposition has suppressed the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively in the private sector by promoting anti-union campaigns in workplaces seeking to unionize and by lobbying lawmakers to pass laws depriving private-sector unions of funds needed to operate. This activity has tracked the dramatic, rapid increase of corporate political activity that began in the mid-1970s, with a specific "call-to-arms" for U.S. corporations that quadrupled the number of corporate PACs from 1976 to 1980. 69 More recently, anti-union lobbyists have passed legislation weakening unions in states such as Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin that were once union strongholds. 70 Outdated labor laws have failed to provide workers with protection from this employer onslaught against collective bargaining. And corporate lobbyists have blocked reforms to labor laws that would protect workers' collective bargaining rights with meaningful penalties for violations and better processes for organizing. Employers are exploiting loopholes, including by misclassifying workers as independent contractors to get around labor laws that protect employees.

By going after union funding, employer interests and their allied lawmakers can wipe out one of the crucial pillars of support for pro-worker candidates and causes. If unions have fewer members, or if the law hamstrings unions' ability to collect administrative fees from the workers they represent, there will be less union money spent on advocating for workers in general. As Gordon Lafer, associate professor at the Labor Education and Research Center at the University of Oregon, notes, "The labor movement serves as the primary political counterweight to the corporate agenda on a long list of issues that are not per se labor-related. To the extent that unions can be removed as a politically meaningful force, the rest of the agenda becomes much easier to execute." 71

These strategies have been effective, as is evident in the differing trends in unionization between private-sector and public-sector workers. Until very recently, public-sector employers have been far less engaged in trying to block unionization efforts than their private-sector counterparts. Just 6.4 percent of private-sector workers belong to a union, down from about 35 percent in the 1950s and about 25 percent in the early 1970s. In contrast, 34.4 percent of public-sector workers belong to a union, up from at or slightly above 10 percent in the 1950s. Overall, 10.7 percent of workers belong to a union, down from about 35 percent in the mid-1950s. 72 Figure C shows the dramatic decline in private-sector unionization since the 1970s.

Employers often fight unionizing efforts with aggression and intimidation, using legal and illegal tactics

Not all employers oppose unions. Some unions featured in this report were voluntarily recognized by employers, and some led campaigns in which the employer provided union organizers with free access to employees. 73

But often, when private-sector workers seek to organize and bargain collectively, employers hire union avoidance consultants to orchestrate and roll out anti-union campaigns. Intense and aggressive anti-union campaigns-once confined to the most anti-union employers-have become widespread, leading to a "coercive and punitive climate for organizing that goes unrestrained due to a fundamentally flawed regulatory regime that neither protects [workers'] rights nor provides any disincentives for employers to continue disregarding the law." 74 While the National Labor Relations Act, which governs private-sector collective bargaining, makes it illegal for employers to intimidate, coerce, or fire workers involved in union-organizing campaigns, the penalties are insufficient to provide a serious economic disincentive for such behavior. 75 And many of the tactics that are illegal on paper can be actively pursued because verbal, veiled threats without a paper trail or explicit language connecting the threat to the union effort are difficult to prove and thus prosecute. Finally, the Department of Labor is working to repeal a rule that prohibits employers from keeping the work of anti-union consultants a secret. 76

Three-quarters or more of private employers facing unionization hire union avoidance consultants to quash the union campaign, sometimes spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. Employer tactics may include one-on-one meetings with supervisors, mandatory employee meetings (also known as "captive audience" meetings), videos, and leaflets. Often consultants work behind the scenes to craft the message that management delivers. The communication strategy typically warns employees that the union will just charge dues and fines without delivering raises or other benefits; will make employees strike; will take years to deliver a contract; and will generally interfere in the employment relationship. Because employers can bar pro-union workers from speaking at mandatory meetings, management can make the case against unions without being challenged. The campaign against a union-organizing attempt at the lifestyle media site Thrillist is a classic example of the types of misleading arguments used by employers: anti-union messaging argued that that the union would come between management and employees, would silence employees by making them talk only through union representatives, would make promises it could not keep, and would prevent employers from giving wage increases.

From the 1990s to the early 2000s, the likelihood of private employers using 10 or more tactics in their anti-union campaigns doubled, and the focus on more coercive and punitive tactics-designed to intensely monitor and punish union activity-increased.

Employers may also threaten to cut workers' hours or pay, suspend workers, or report workers to immigration enforcement authorities.

Fifty-seven percent of private employers threaten to close the worksite if employees unionize. Forty-seven percent threaten to cut wages and benefits.

Sixty-three percent of private employers interrogate workers about union support in mandatory one-on-one meetings between workers and their supervisors, and 54 percent of employers threaten workers in such meetings.

Union elections are not free and fair because the law does not give union organizers equal access to voters. Employers may block union organizers from accessing the workplace while compelling voters to attend anti-union meetings. Unions may only access voters outside of work. And while, by law, employers that possess contact information such as email addresses for employees must provide that information to union organizers, proposed legislation would severely limit organizers' rights to access that information.

The tactics are effective. A study of private-sector union organizing in Chicago found that while a majority of workers supported unionization when petitions were filed to begin the workplace organizing effort (a majority vote is needed to elect to unionize), unions were victorious in only 31 percent of these campaigns, after workers had endured the full range of employer anti-union activity.

Loopholes in labor laws allow employers to endlessly delay contract negotiations. Two years after an election, 37 percent of newly formed private-sector unions still had no labor agreement.

Workers reclassified as independent contractors cannot form unions because they aren't covered by the NLRA

Misclassification occurs when employers classify workers who are in fact employees as independent contractors, which employers do to avoid a host of employment-related obligations, such as paying for unemployment insurance and workers' compensation and even paying a minimum wage. Workers wrongly classified as independent contractors are also deprived of the right to unionize under U.S. laws. These workers are thus unable to join together in a union to negotiate better terms and conditions with their employer. Misclassification is rampant in many industries such as food services and construction. The practice contributes to an economy where wages are flat, profits are soaring, and companies that do not arrange their businesses to avoid their employment responsibilities are disadvantaged. 89

Corporate lobbyists push laws-misleadingly called 'right-to-work' laws-that seek to defund private-sector unions

Unions provide a range of tangible benefits to their members, from contract and benefit administration and enforcement to legal services. These services cost money. While states generally have no jurisdiction over private-sector unions, the NLRA allows states to pass "right-to-work" (RTW) laws. 90 Contrary to their branding, these laws do nothing to boost workers' chances of finding a job. Rather, right-to-work laws simply prohibit contracts that require all workers who benefit from union representation to help pay for these benefits. Specifically, RTW laws say unions can't require nonunion members of a collective bargaining unit who don't pay union dues to pay "fair share fees"-fees that cover the basic costs of representing employees in the workplace (but are not used for costs associated with union organizing or political activities).

Fair share fees are just that. Under federal law, no one can be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. However, unions are required to represent all members of a bargaining unit, whether or not they are in the union. This means that if an employer mistreats a worker who is not in the union, the union must pursue that worker's grievance just as it would a member's, even if it costs tens of thousands of dollars. Nonunion workers also receive the higher wages and benefits their union coworkers enjoy. 91 Eliminating fair share fees encourages "free-riding": workers paying union dues see coworkers who are paying nothing but getting the same benefits, and they decide to leave the union and stop paying union dues.

RTW laws weaken unions by eroding union funding and membership ( Figure D shows union density, as measured by shares of workers covered by collective bargaining, in RTW and fair share states). Proponents of RTW laws say they boost investment and job growth but there is no serious evidence of that. While causal impacts of RTW laws are hard to estimate with statistical precision, there is ample evidence that RTW laws hurt all workers-not just union members. 92

Twenty-eight states have "right-to-work" laws that allow workers in the private sector to access the benefits of union negotiations without sharing the costs.

States that passed RTW a long time ago have successfully avoided large-scale unionization. Historically states in the Deep South and parts of Midwest and West passed RTW laws to weaken unions. Many succeeded. Especially in the Deep South, states that passed RTW laws in the 1940s and 1950s have low private-sector unionization rates that persist to this day.

States with strong unions are now being targeted by RTW. Anti-union lobbyists have succeeded in bringing RTW to heavily unionized states such as Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin to weaken worker power.

"National Right to Work" legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate: H.R. 785 by Rep. King (R-Iowa) and S. 545 by Sen. Paul (R-Ky.). These companion bills would allow employees who work in a unionized workplace, but who decline to become union members, to refuse to pay a fair share fee to the union that negotiates their benefits.

A well-funded, centralized campaign is behind RTW laws. In the wake of the Great Recession, RTW laws passed and proposed were presented as homegrown responses to state unemployment woes, but the similarity of the text in the laws, and the fact that states with more fiscal distress were not more likely to introduce such legislation, reveals "a political agenda...funded by a network of extremely wealthy individuals and corporations."

RTW laws lower unionization rates even in less-unionized states. The passage of RTW in Oklahoma decreased private-sector unionization rates by roughly 20 percent.

Wages are 3.1 percent lower in RTW states than in fair share states, after controlling for individual demographic and socioeconomic factors and state macroeconomic indicators, including cost of living. This translates into a $1,558 annual RTW wage penalty for a typical full-time, full-year worker, union or nonunion, in the public or private sector.

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. targeted the misleading nature of the "right-to-work" slogan in 1961 when he said the purpose of "right to work" is "to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone."

Corporate lobbies and allied lawmakers are dismantling the rights of public-sector union workers

When state budget deficits increased after the Great Recession, business-backed governors in a number of states sought to curb the powers of public-sector unions by arguing that government unions were to blame. Though these anti-union laws were presented as homegrown responses to specific fiscal distress in each state, the laws' similarities, and the fact that states with more fiscal distress were not more likely to introduce such legislation, suggest that lawmakers were enacting an agenda driven and funded by national corporate interests. In fact, the financial distress was caused by Wall Street's excessive risk-taking, not by unions. 100 And, many of the same states that curbed state employee unions also enacted new tax cuts for the wealthy. 101

From 2011 to 2015, fifteen states enacted legislation severely limiting or even dismantling collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions.

Wisconsin's "Budget Repair Bill" (Act 10) largely eliminated collective bargaining rights for the state's 175,000 public employees. While the law does not explicitly outlaw collective bargaining, it prohibits public employees from negotiating about anything other than wages (and then only to adjust wages for inflation); it outlaws fair share fees; it eliminates the ability to pay union dues through the state payroll; and it requires unions to hold expensive recertification elections every year to remain in existence.

The share of workers in unions in Wisconsin dropped from 15.2 percent in 2009 to 8.3 percent in 2015.

Other state laws eliminated collective bargaining rights for certain groups of workers (school teachers in Tennessee, municipal employees in Oklahoma, farmworkers and child care workers in Maine, and home care workers in Michigan) or restricted what public employees can bargain about (health care in New Jersey).

Beyond curbs to collective bargaining are a set of state measures that target the power of public-sector unions by cutting public-sector wages and benefits and restricting unions' ability to collect dues through the public payroll.

Attacks on public-sector collective bargaining are playing out in the courts

In the public sector, there is a similar attack on collective bargaining playing out in the courts. In Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (431 U.S. 209 (1977)), the Supreme Court upheld the use of fair share fees in public-sector unions against a challenge based on the First Amendment. The Court held that public-sector employees who elect not to join the union may be charged a fee to cover the cost of collective bargaining and contract administration. Fair share fees may not be used to support union political activities. These fair share fees ensure that all workers represented by the union pay their fair share of the cost of that representation.

In 2016, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association which, among other things, addressed whether Abood should be overruled and public-sector fair share fee arrangements invalidated under the First Amendment. On March 29, 2016, the Supreme Court affirmed Abood by an equally divided 4-4 split. 107

Pro-RTW organizations have continued to litigate challenges to public-sector unions' fair share fee requirements. One of those cases, Janus v. AFSCME, will likely be heard in the Supreme Court's upcoming term. 108

Conclusion: Unions are essential to a fair economy and a vibrant democracy

Unions are a dynamic and ever-evolving institution of the American economy that exist to give working people a voice and leverage over their working conditions and the economic policy decisions that shape these conditions. Collective bargaining is indispensable if we want to achieve shared prosperity.

But it is precisely because they are effective and necessary for shared prosperity that unions are under attack by employers who want to maintain excessive leverage over workers and by policymakers representing the interests of the top 1 percent. These attacks have succeeded in increasing the gap between the number of workers who would like to be represented by a union and the number who are represented by a union. And these threats to the freedom to join together in unions haven't been met with a policy response sufficient to keep the playing field level between organizing workers and the employers looking to thwart them.

Giving workers a real voice and leverage is essential for democracy. While unions historically have not been able to match corporate political donations dollar for dollar, working people organizing together in unions play an equalizing role because they can motivate members to give their time and effort to political causes. For example, one study found that unions are very effective at getting people to the polls-especially increasing voting among those with only a high school education. 109

As this report has shown, unions-when strong-have the capacity to tackle some of the biggest problems that plague our economy, from growing economic inequality, wage stagnation, and racial and gender inequities to eroding democracy and barriers to civic participation.

And unions also help to address current workforce trends that are increasing work insecurity, from the rise of part-time work and unpaid internships to the exploitation of student athletes to increasing numbers of Uber drivers and other "gig economy" workers. 110 In a recent New York Times op-ed, Kashana Cauley cited some of these trends and called on her millennial peers to lead the next labor movement. 111 Indeed, there is evidence that young workers are primed to do so: 55 percent of 18- to 29-year-old workers view unions favorably, compared with 46 percent of workers age 30 and older. 112 And young people of both political parties are more amenable to labor unions than their older peers. 113 Having entered the workforce during the last recession, these young workers have experienced a labor market with lower wages, diminishing benefits, "noncompete" clauses that make it harder for even entry-level employees to move to better jobs, and other facets of increasing insecurity, Cauley explains. 114

Certainly, Americans of all ages, occupations, races, and genders have a vested interest in making sure our economy works for everyone. To promote an inclusive economy and a robust democracy, we must work together to rebuild our collective bargaining system.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank our coworkers who provided valuable feedback on drafts of this report and contributed data and examples, including Daniel Essrow, Kayla Blado, Elizabeth Rose, Monique Morrissey, David Cooper, Julia Wolfe, Jessica Schieder, and Samantha Sanders. We are also thankful to Krista Faries for her excellent copy editing and to Margaret Poydock for laying out the report.

Endnotes

1. Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that everyone has a right to form and/or join a trade union. The right of labor unions to gather is given under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects the right to exercise freedom of speech in peaceful protest. The U.S. Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935 to protect the rights of employers and employees, including the right to form, join, or assist labor organizations and to bargain collectively. Americans of all ages broadly support the ability of workers in various sectors to unionize, with shares supporting unions ranging from 62 percent to 82 percent, depending on the sector. See " Mixed Views of Impact of Long-Term Decline in Union Membership: Public Says Workers in Many Sectors Should Be Able to Unionize," Pew Research Center, April 27, 2015.

2. In 2016 there were 16.3 million wage and salary workers age 16 and older who were represented by a union, either because they were union members or (if they weren't union members) were in jobs covered by a union or an employee association contract. The share of workers who belonged to a union was 10.7 percent, and the share of workers covered by collective bargaining was 11.9 percent. (Source: EPI analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group [CPS ORG] data for all workers age 16 and older).

4. Cathy Hester Seckman, " The Unions: How Organized Labor Is Lending a Helping Hand to Dental Hygiene," RDH vol. 24, no. 4 (April 2004); Liat Shapiro, " Grad Students Vote in Majority for Labor Union," The Justice, May 23, 2017; Mark Konkol, " Latino Firefighters Bullied into Taking Race-Based Promotions, They Say," DNAinfo Chicago, May 22, 2015; Jeffrey Fleishman, " Working Hollywood: Writers Are the 'Labor' and 'Leprechauns' behind TV's Latest Golden Age," Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2017; Tian Harter, notes from a talk by Paul K. Davis (Ames Federal Employees Union-IFPTE Local 30, Santa Clara County, California), titled "Scientists & Engineers in Labor Unions?-Yes"; website of the Law Enforcement Officers Security Unions-DC, www.leosudc.org and " Why Join AFEU?" Ames Federal Employees Union website, accessed August 22, 2017; Gary Weiss, "An Unlikely Big Player in Digital Media: Unions," Columbia Journalism Review, June 21, 2017; Jeff Fannell, " The MLBPA: What We Do," MLBPlayers.com, August 31, 2016.

5. Non-Hispanic white men make up 34.5 percent of total persons represented by unions. These estimates are based on EPI analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group (CPS ORG) data for all workers age 16 and older. As of 2016, there are 15.5 million workers age 18 to 64 who are covered by a union contract; 10.1 million are women and/or people of color. The breakdowns by race and ethnicity, gender, and occupations in this section focus on workers age 18 to 64 who are represented by a union, as do our estimates of union wage premiums (advantages) discussed later in the paper. We rely on our own tabulations in order to obtain race/ethnicity breakdowns that are mutually exclusive.

7. Columbia University, 364 NLRB No. 90 (Slip. Op. 2016).

9. See the " About IFPTE" and " Whom We Represent" pages on the IFPTE website (ifpte.org); the IFPTE Local 70 website (ifptelocal70.org); and " Center for American Progress Staff Sign First Contract " [press release], International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, May 15, 2017.

13. Dave Jamieson, " Staff of In These Times Magazine Joins Communications Workers of America Union," Huffington Post, February 25, 2014; Hamilton Nolan, " Vice Writers Get a Union Contract with a Big Raise," Gawker, April 15, 2016; Corinne Grinapol, " The American Prospect Staff Unionize," Adweek, April 24, 2017; Dave McNary, " Fusion Staff Unionizes with Writers Guild of America East," Variety, November 11, 2016; Michael Calderone, " The Huffington Post Ratifies Union Contract," Huffington Post, January 30, 2017.

14. " 11 Reasons to be Thankful for Labor Unions," Hiden Rott & Oertle, LLP (accessed July 27, 2017).

16. The classic reference for the union impact on inequality, and many other matters, is Richard B. Freeman and James l. Medoff, What Do Unions Do? (New York: Basic Books, 1984). Also see Brantly Callaway and William J. Collins, "Unions, Workers, and Wages at the Peak of the American Labor Movement," National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper no. 23516, June 2017, for evidence from the early postwar period. More recent estimates of union wage premiums by wage fifth, occupation, and education can be found in Lawrence Mishel, Josh Bivens, Elise Gould, and Heidi Shierholz, The State of Working America, 12th Edition, an Economic Policy Institute book (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 2012), Table 4.37.

17. Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld, "Unions, Norms, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality," American Sociological Review vol. 76 (2011), 513-37; Lawrence Mishel, Josh Bivens, Elise Gould, and Heidi Shierholz, The State of Working America, 12th Edition, an Economic Policy Institute book (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 2012), Table 4.37.

19. Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, downloadable Excel files with 2015 data updates to Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, "Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998," Quarterly Journal of Economics vol. 118, no. 1 (2003).

21. There are three groups of workers whose wages have been affected by the decline of unionization. First, there are the remaining union members, who according to research have experienced a decline in the earnings premium that comes from belonging to a union-a decline especially large for female members. For instance, the union wage premium fell over the 1973 to 2009 period by nearly a third for private-sector women. Among private-sector men, after peaking in the early 1980s, the earnings premium that comes from union membership had fallen slightly by 2009 (Jake Rosenfeld, Patrick Denice, and Jennifer Laird, Union Decline Lowers Wages of Nonunion Workers: The Overlooked Reason Why Wages Are Stuck and Inequality Is Growing, Economic Policy Institute, August 30, 2016). The estimates referenced are from Figure 3.1 of Jake Rosenfeld, What Unions No Longer Do, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 2014).

30. The wage gap is adjusted and is as of 2016; it comes from Economic Policy Institute, State of Working America Data Library, " Wage Gaps: Black-White Wage Gap," last updated February 13, 2017.

32. Data are unadjusted for factors such as demographics and employer size. Data are as of March 2017 and are drawn from EPI analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics, " Employee Benefits in the United States-March 2017" [news release], U.S. Department of Labor. In 2016, women made up 56.6 percent of those employed in service occupations but only 46.8 percent of all workers employed in 2016 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, " Household Data, Annual Averages" [data table], Current Population Survey, 1, 4). Service occupations include protective service, food preparation and serving, healthcare support, building and grounds cleaning and maintenance, and personal care and service.

33. EPI analysis of 2016 microdata from the Current Population Survey finds that hourly wages for black workers represented by unions are 14.7 percent higher than wages paid to their nonunionized counterparts. Hispanic workers represented by unions are paid 21.8 percent more than their nonunionized counterparts. In contrast, non-Hispanic white union workers have a smaller-9.6 percent-wage advantage over nonunionized white workers. The regression analysis producing this estimate controlled for education, experience, gender, race, citizenship status, geographic division, industry, and occupation.

36. Richard Trumka, speech given at the Steelworkers convention, July 1, 2008.

37. Liz Shuler, Speech on Women and Work, posted October 28, 2015; Leslie Tolf, " 5 Women Labor Leaders Speak Their Minds on the Future of Labor," Huffpost [blog], September 7, 2015; " AFL-CIO Chief Denounces Trump's 'Spirited Defense of Racism and Bigotry'," CBS News, August 16, 2017; " Major 'I Am 2018' Initiative Announced to Mark 50th Anniversary of Memphis Sanitation Strike, MLK Assassination " [press release], June 28, 2017.

41. Heidi Shierholz and Celine McNicholas, " Understanding the Anti-regulation Agenda: The Basics" [fact sheet], Economic Policy Institute, April 11, 2017; Economic Policy Institute, " The Perkins Project on Worker Rights and Wages."

42. New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, Deadly Skyline: An Annual Report on Construction Fatalities in New York State, January 2017.

44. Overall, unionization is associated with a 14 to 32 percent drop in traumatic injuries and a 29 to 83 percent drop in fatalities. See Alison D. Morantz, "Coal Mine Safety: Do Unions Make a Difference?" ILR Review vol. 66, no. 1 (January 2013), 88-116.

47. The federal standard would include an assessment of risk factors (such as staffing levels), a post-incidence response procedure, employee participation in the creation of a plan, and prohibition on retaliation against an employee who may seek legal assistance after an incident. See Alexia Fernández-Campbell, " Why Violence Against Nurses Has Spiked in the Last Decade," The Atlantic, December 1, 2016 (updated June 19, 2017); " NNU Petitions Violence Prevention in Workplace," National Nurses United, August 2, 2016. See also a Government Accountability Office report that found that workplace violence is a serious and growing concern for 15 million health care workers and can be prevented through violence prevention programs: U.S. Government Accountability Office, " Additional Efforts Needed to Help Protect Health Care Workers from Workplace Violence," March 2016.

48. Associated Press, " OSHA Seeks New Limits on Silica Dust," Washington Post, August 23, 2013; " Heeding the Science (Finally) to Fight a Preventable Workplace Killer," Union of Concerned Scientists, September 2013; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, " Notes from the Field: Update: Silicosis Mortality-United States, 1999-2013," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, June 19, 2015; Occupational Safety and Health Administration, " OSHA's Final Rule to Protect Workers from Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica," U.S Department of Labor (accessed July 26, 2017); United Auto Workers, " New Crystalline Silica Rule Long Overdue," June 13, 2016; Stan Parker, " Industry, Unions Lock Horns in OSHA Silica Rule Dust-Up," Law360, November 21, 2016; James Melius, "Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Workforce Committee, Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, Hearing on Reviewing Recent Changes to OSHA's Silica Standards," April 19, 2016; Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz, " Workers Breathe Easier over Silica Dust Rules as Construction Industry Winces," Chicago Tribune, March 24, 2016.

49. " TSAFF Wins Workers' Compensation for Members with PTSD," IAFF FireFighters (accessed July 27, 2017).

52. Bertil Videt and Danielle de Winter, " Job Insecurity as the Norm: How Labour Market Trends Have Changed the Way We Work," The Broker, March 10, 2014. Videt and de Winter cite A. Kalleberg, "Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations in Transition," American Sociological Review vol. 74., no. 1 (2009), 2.

54. Union-nonunion gaps in access to paid vacation and holidays are much narrower in state and local governments because teachers make up a large portion of state and local government employment and they are not usually offered paid vacation. See Tech Notes on page 3 of Bureau of Labor Statistics, " Employee Benefits in the United States-March 2017 " [news release], U.S. Department of Labor, July 21, 2017.

55. EPI analysis of the 2016 General Social Survey Quality of Worklife and Work Orientations supplements. "Union worker" here refers to workers who said they belonged to a union.

56. EPI analysis of the 2016 General Social Survey Quality of Worklife and Work Orientations supplements. Respondents were asked whether they or their spouses belong to a union. The sample excludes all workers who say their schedules never change.

57. 87 percent of private-sector workers in the top 10 percent of wages have the ability to earn paid sick days, compared with only 27 percent of private-sector workers in the bottom 10 percent. Sources: Elise Gould and Jessica Schieder, Work Sick or Lose Pay? The High Cost of Being Sick When You Don't Get Paid Sick Days, Economic Policy Institute, June 28, 2017; Justin Miller, " With Oregon's Bill, Paid Sick Leave Gains Momentum," The American Prospect, June 16, 2015; " 2014: A Banner Year for Workers and Families in Massachusetts," Massachusetts Communities Action Network, November 2014.

58. DB pensions (such as those historically negotiated by unions) provide more secure, adequate, and egalitarian retirement incomes than 401(k)-style DC plans. Workers are automatically enrolled in traditional pensions and, in the private sector, employer contributions fund the plan, so that the existence of savings does not depend on a worker's ability to set aside wages for retirement; in addition, the amount of retirement income is guaranteed with pensions, not contingent on the state of the stock market at the time when retirees need to access their savings. In contrast, employers that offer 401(k)-style plans typically require workers to contribute to the plans in order to receive an employer match, and these workers shoulder all the investment risk.

60. Data are from Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2016, " Table 2. Retirement Benefits: Access, Participation, and Take-up Rates, Civilian Workers, March 2016."

62. Adjusted data are based on analysis of fourth-quarter 1994 Employment Cost Index microdata as presented in Table 4.35 in Lawrence Mishel, Josh Bivens, Elise Gould and Heidi Shierholz, The State of Working America, 12th Edition, an Economic Policy Institute book (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 2012) and drawn from Brooks Pierce, "Compensation Inequality," U.S. Department of Labor Statistics Working Paper no. 323, 1999.

63. See "A User's Guide to Peer Assistance and Review," Harvard Graduate School of Education (accessed July 2017); Saul A. Rubinstein and John E. McCarthy, Collaborating on School Reform: Creating Union-Management Partnerships to Improve Public School Systems, Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, October 2010; " Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) Program," Boston Teachers Union (accessed July 2017).

64. "For Good Jobs, Look Beyond the Rust," New York Times, July 23, 2017; Moving Apprenticeship into Manufacturing's Future: Industrial Manufacturing Technician, COWS (University of Wisconsin-Madison), February 2017.

67. In 2012, forty-eight percent of all nonmanagerial workers surveyed by the AFL-CIO Workers' Rights Survey (May 2012 Hart Research Associates poll) said they would "probably" or "definitely" vote to form a labor union if an election were held tomorrow.

68. In a roundtable discussion on PBS NewsHour, James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, suggested that "the real reason" political leaders in states such as Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey, and Michigan have targeted unions is because they are "the backbone of the Democratic Party...the ones that have the boots on the ground" (" Union Leaders Discuss State of U.S. Labor as Attacks Rise, Membership Goes Down," PBS NewsHour, September 3, 2012).

69. Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer-and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class (Simon & Schuster, 2010).

70. Colin Gordon, "Right to Work (For Less): By the Numbers," Dissent, May 10, 2016.

71. Gordon Lafer, The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 2017), 93.

72. Current membership rates are for 2016 and come from Bureau of Labor Statistics, " Union Members Summary" [economic news release], U.S. Department of Labor, January 26, 2017; 1950s rates come from John Schmitt, " Union Membership Trends, 1948-2012," No Apparent Motive (blog), January 25, 2013; and 1950s and 1970s rates come from the data appendix for figures that accompanies Barry T. Hirsch, " Sluggish Institutions in a Dynamic World: Can Unions and Industrial Competition Coexist?" Journal of Economic Perspectives vol. 22, no. 1 (2008), 153-76.

73. Employers, where law permits, may voluntarily recognize a union based on a simple showing of majority support from the employees.

75. Penalties may consist of being required to post a notice, reinstate fired workers, give back pay to fired workers, or rerun an election. There are no punitive damages or criminal charges. The most serious penalty, a bargaining order to work with the union on a first contract, is often ineffectual as the anti-union campaign continues.

76. Marni von Wilpert, " Comment to the U.S. Department of Labor Opposing the Rescission of the Persuader Rule," Economic Policy Institute, August 9, 2017.

77. A national study of NLRB elections from 1999 to 2003 found that 75 percent of employers used consultants to design and coordinate their anti-union campaigns; see Kate Bronfenbrenner, No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing, Economic Policy Institute and American Rights at Work Education Fund, May 20, 2009. A 2002 Chicago study found that 82 percent of employers hired anti-union management consultants. See Chirag Mehta and Nik Theodore, Undermining the Right to Organize: Employer Behavior during Union Representation Campaigns, a report by the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago for American Rights at Work, December 2005. A notice of proposed rulemaking from the U.S. Department of Labor cited estimates ranging from 66 percent to 87 percent; see Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act; Interpretation of the 'Advice' Exemption, 76 Fed. Reg. 36178 (June 21, 2011).

86. Testimony of Guerino J. Calemine, III, General Counsel, Communications Workers of America before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health, Labor, Employment, and Pensions, Legislative Hearing on H.R. 2776, 2775, and 2723, June 14, 2017.

90. The 1947 Taft-Hartley amendments to the National Labor Relations Act sanctioned a state's right to pass laws that prohibit unions from requiring a worker to pay dues, even when the worker is covered by a union-negotiated collective bargaining agreement.

92. It is hard to isolate the decision of a state to become RTW from other legislative changes or to separate the RTW effect from the many factors, including recessions, that influence state labor market conditions.

93. Gordon Lafer, The Legislative Attack on American Wages and Labor Standards, 2011-2012, Economic Policy Institute, October 31, 2013.

94. Gordon Lafer, The Legislative Attack on American Wages and Labor Standards, 2011-2012, Economic Policy Institute, October 31, 2013. According to Lafer's report, one of the most active organizations facilitating this work is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a corporate lobbying group whose model bills (establishing RTW, abolishing minimum wage and prevailing wage statutes, etc.) are the basis for over 100 laws adopted annually. See also " ALEC," Common Cause website (accessed August 2017).

100. According to Gordon Lafer in The One Percent Solution, the argument that budget deficits were the result of overspending bureaucrats and overly generous union contracts did not fit the facts: there was no statistical correlation between the size of budget deficits and the presence or strength of labor unions. See Gordon Lafer, The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 2017).

101. In Wisconsin, for example, half of the tax cuts enacted from 2011 to 2014 went to the richest 20 percent of the state's population. See chapter 1 in Gordon Lafer, The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 2017).

102. Unless otherwise noted, information in these bullet items comes from Gordon Lafer, The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 2017).

103. Ohio's law was overturned by citizen referendum and Minnesota's bill was vetoed by the governor. The other 13 states are Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

107. 136 S.Ct. 1083 (2016). A split decision effectively upholds the ruling of the lower court.

109. Jake Rosenfeld finds that unions increase voter turnout, especially in the private sector. Voting rates are "5 percentage points higher than the rates of non-members" (Jake Rosenfeld, What Unions No Longer Do [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 2014], 170-171).

110. EPI has researched unpaid internships and part-time work. See for example, Ross Eisenbrey, " Unpaid Interns Fare Worse in the Job Market," Economic Policy Institute Snapshot, July 6, 2016, and Lonnie Golden, Still Falling Short on Hours and Pay: Part-time Work Becoming New Normal, Economic Policy Institute, December 5, 2016. Many news articles have covered the plight of student athletes, who generate substantial sums for their universities but earn no pay themselves. See for example, Taylor Branch, " The Shame of College Sports," The Atlantic, October 2011. Uber drivers have been trying to organize in Seattle but the company is fighting it, requiring its customer service representatives to call drivers with a script arguing that it would be bad for them. See Alison Griswold, " Uber Is Using Its US Customer Service Reps to Deliver Its Anti-union Message," Quartz, February 20, 2016.

112. " Mixed Views of Impact of Long-Term Decline in Union Membership: Public Says Workers in Many Sectors Should Be Able to Unionize," Pew Research Center, April 27, 2015.

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How today's unions help working people: Giving workers the power to improve their jobs and unrig the economy

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Americans have always joined together-whether in parent teacher associations or local community organizations-to solve problems and make changes that improve their lives and their communities. Through unions, people join together to strive for improvements at the place where they spend a large portion of their waking hours: work.

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A union membership is necessary. A union membership is necessary because they union will help you by negotiating contracts that support you. It also guarantees things you care about like raises, affordable healthcare, job security, and a stable schedule.