Unionization Substantially Improves the Pay and Benefits of African Americans
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Unionization Substantially Improves the Pay and Benefits of African Americans
Union Membership Plays Valuable Role in Countering Economic Inequality
For Immediate Release: March 31, 2008
Contact: Alan Barber, 202-293-5380 x115
WASHINGTON, D.C. - On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had traveled to support city sanitation workers who were striking for better pay and working conditions. While much has changed, a report released today by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shows that four decades after King's death, unionized African Americans continue to make more money and have better benefits than their non-union counterparts.
The report, "Unions and Upward Mobility for African-American Workers," found that unionized black workers earned, on average, 12 percent more than their non-union peers. In addition, black workers in unions were much more likely to have health-insurance benefits and a pension plan.
"The data demonstrate that unions raise wages and increase access to health insurance and pensions," said John Schmitt, a Senior Economist at CEPR and the author of the study. "Unions continue to be a central element of any plan to improve economic equality in this country."
The report, which analyzed data from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS), found that unionization raises the pay of African-American workers by about $2.00 per hour. According to the report, black workers in unions were also 16 percentage points more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and 19 percentage points more likely to have an employer-provided pension plan than black workers who were not in unions.
According to the study, unionization has an even more dramatic effect on black workers in low-wage jobs. Among African-American workers in the 15 lowest-paying occupations, union members earned 14 percent more than those workers who were not in unions. In the same low-wage occupations, unionized black workers were 20 percentage points more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and 28 percentage points more likely to have a pension plan than their non-union counterparts.
Additional state-specific information is available from the following organizations:
California:
Jessica Goodheart
Co-Director of Research
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)
(323) 356-1081
Donald Cohen
Executive Director
Center on Policy Initiatives
www.onlineCPI.org
(619) 708-3367
Florida:
Emily Eisenhauer
Research Associate
Research Institute for Social and Economic Policy Center for Labor Research and Studies
(305) 348-1415
Fax: (305) 348-2241
Emily.Eisenhauer@fiu.edu
Indiana:
Rochelle A. Finzel
Director, Institute for Working Families
Indiana Coalition on Housing and Homeless Issues (ICHHI)
(317) 636-8819 ext. 1255
Fax: (317) 361-4859
rfinzel@ichhi.org
www.ichhi.org
Maryland:
Sean Dobson
Executive Director
Progressive Maryland
(240) 393-6798
Nevada:
Joe Edson
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Reno Office
(775) 348-7557
New York:
David Dyssegaard Kallick
Senior Fellow
Fiscal Policy Institute
(212) 721-7164
(212) 721-5415
ddkallick@fiscalpolicy.org
www.fiscalpolicy.org
North Carolina:
John Quinterno
Research Associate
NC Budget & Tax Center
(919) 856-3185
john@ncjustice.org
Ohio:
Amy Hanauer
Policy Matters Ohio
(216) 361-9801
www.policymattersohio.org
Oregon:
Mike Leachman
Policy Analyst
Oregon Center for Public Policy
(503) 873-1201
mleachman@ocpp.org
Pennsylvania:
Mark A. Price, Ph.D.
Labor Economist
Keystone Research Center
(717) 255-7181
price@keystoneresearch.org
www.keystoneresearch.org
Texas:
Don Baylor
Center for Public Policy Priorities
(512) 320-0222 ext. 108
Baylor@cppp.org
Utah:
Allison Rowland, PhD
Budget and Research Director
Voices for Utah Children
(801) 364-1182
fax (801) 364-1186
Virginia:
Sara C. Okos
Policy Analyst
The Commonwealth Institute
(804) 643-2474 ext.118
sara@thecommonwealthinstitute.org
Washington:
Marilyn P. Watkins, Ph.D.
Policy Director
Economic Opportunity Institute
(206) 529-6370
marilyn@eoionline.org
West Virginia:
Ted Boettner
Executive Director
West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy
(304) 720-8682
tboettner@wvpolicy.org
Wisconsin:
Joel Rogers
Director
Center on Wisconsin Strategy / Center for State Innovation
(608) 262-4266
jrogers@cows.org
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The Center for Economic and Policy Research is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. CEPR's Advisory Board of Economists includes Nobel Laureate economists Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz; Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University; and Eileen Appelbaum, Professor and Director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University.
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