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Unionization Substantially Increases the Wages of Low-Wage Workers
"While all workers benefit from union membership, low-wage workers see largest gains"
For Immediate Release: May 15, 2008
Contact: Alan Barber, (202) 293-5380 x115
WASHINGTON, DC: After decades of disappointing wage growth for many American workers, a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shows that unionization significantly boosts the wages of low-wage workers.
The report, "The Union Advantage for Low-Wage Workers," finds that unionization raises the wages of the typical low-wage worker by 20.6 percent. Unions also have a substantial impact on the wages of workers at the middle and top of the wage distribution, but the report found that the effect for low-wage workers was the largest.
For the typical U.S. worker --the earner right in the middle of the national pay scale-- unionization raises wages about 13.7 percent, about two-thirds of the impact of unionization on the typical low-wage worker. For the typical high-wage worker, joining a union increased pay about 6.1 percent, or less than one-third of the increase for low-wage workers.
"Unionization raises wages for all workers, but unions have by far the biggest impact on the wages of the lowest-paid workers," said John Schmitt, a Senior Economist at CEPR and the author of the study.
The disproportionate impact of unions on low-wage workers also holds across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. In each state, the union premium was substantially larger for low-wage workers than it was for middle- or high-wage workers.
"Unions give the biggest boost to low-wage workers because these are the workers that have the least bargaining power in the labor market," Schmitt said. "Unionization has a large and measurable impact on the bargaining power, and therefore the wages, of low-wage workers."
Over the period covered in the report, 13.8 percent of American workers were either members of a union or covered by a union contract at their workplace. Over the same period, the unionization rate varied widely across the United States, from 3.9 percent in North Carolina to 26.4 percent in New York.
The report analyzed five years of data on 16-to-64 year old workers from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) for the years 2003 through 2007, the most recent years available.
Additional state-specific information is available from the following organizations:
Alaska
Lawrence D. Weiss Ph.D., M.S.
Executive Director
Alaska Center for Public Policy
Anchorage AK 99521-0490
Office Phone: 907.276.2277
Cell Phone: 907.240.4141
Toll Free Fax: 1.866.366.9352
ldweiss@acpp.info
www.acpp.info
Colorado
Rich Jones
The Bell Policy Center
1801 Broadway #280
Denver CO 80202
303/297-0456
jones@thebell.org
Florida
Bruce Nissen
Director
Research Institute for Social and Economic Policy Center for Labor Research and Studies
Florida International University Miami, FL 33199
305-348-2616
Fax: 305-348-2241
E-mail: Bruce.Nissen@fiu.edu
Maryland
Matthew Weinstein
Progressive Maryland
matthew@progressivemaryland.org
443.418.4181
Maine
Christopher St. John
Executive Director
Maine Center for Economic Policy
124 Sewall St.
PO Box 437
Augusta ME 04332
207 622-7381, fax 622-0239, cell 441-2694
www.mecep.org
North Carolina
John Quinterno
Research Associate
NC Budget & Tax Center
(919) 856-3185
john@ncjustice.org
New Jersey
Jon Shure
President
New Jersey Policy Perspective
137 W. Hanover St.
Trenton, NJ 08618
(609)393-1145
shure@njpp.org
http://www.njpp.org/
New York
David Dyssegaard Kallick
Senior Fellow
Fiscal Policy Institute
11 Park Place
New York, NY 10007
212/721-7164
212/721-5415
ddkallick@fiscalpolicy.org
www.fiscalpolicy.org
Ohio
Amy Hanauer
Policy Matters Ohio
3631 Perkins Avenue, Suite 4C-East
Cleveland, OH 44114
216/361-9801 (phone)
216/361-9810 (fax)
216/921-0354 (home)
www.policymattersohio.org
Oregon
Charles Sheketoff
Executive Director
Oregon Center for Public Policy
204 N. First, Suite C
PO Box 7
Silverton, OR 97381
tel. 503.873.1201, ext. 331
csheketoff@ocpp.org
http://www.ocpp.org
Pennsylvania
Mark A. Price, Ph.D.
Labor Economist
Keystone Research Center
412 North 3rd Street
Harrisburg PA 17101
717-255-7181
price@keystoneresearch.org
www.keystoneresearch.org
Washington
Marilyn P. Watkins, Ph.D.
Policy Director
Economic Opportunity Institute
1900 N. Northlake Way, Suite 237
Seattle, WA 98103
(206) 529-6370
marilyn@eoionline.org
West Virgina
Ted Boettner, Executive Director
West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy
tboettner@wvpolicy.org
tel: 304/720.8682
Wisconsin
Joel Rogers
Director
Center on Wisconsin Strategy
608-262-4266
jrogers@cows.org
or
Laura Dresser
Associate Director
Center on Wisconsin Strategy
University of Wisconsin Madison
1180 Observatory Drive
Madison WI 53706-1393
ldresser@cows.org
www.cows.org
608-262-6944
Wyoming
Dan Neal
Executive Director
Equality State Policy Center
340 West B Street Suite 203
Casper, WY 82601
307-472-5939
dneal@equalitystate.org
or
Sarah Gorin
Equality State Policy Center
307-745-8594
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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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