Public Employee Press

Editorials
The Union Advantage

If you ever questioned the value of union dues, consider this:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the weekly median earnings of a two-income non-union family are $400 less than those of a union family.

Over the course of a 25-year career, that adds up to half a million dollars.

A recent report from the Century Foundation report clearly spells out the union advantage. Unquestionably, the benefits and pay of union workers are better than those of non-union workers.

According to the report, "Even when one accounts for characteristics that can affect earnings other than unionization - such as education, experience, occupation, hours worked, marital status, having children, state of residence, and (unfortunately) sex, race, and citizenship - the gap between union and nonunion workers remains nearly as large. Among private-sector workers who are otherwise similar, union members have per hour earnings that are 27.6 percent greater, on average, than those of nonunion workers."

The story is the same across many other occupations.

The biggest difference in worker earnings is in the life, physical and social services field. Union workers in those jobs earn 48.2 percent more than their non-union counterparts - which translates into $1,507,000 over a lifetime.

The second greatest difference is among construction workers. Construction workers in unions earn 41.6 percent more than non-union workers. That means construction workers who don't organize lose $1.1 million over their lifetime of work.

But, as AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Laura Reyes noted in her essay in the June 2015 PEP, unions improve the lives of all workers. In states where unions are strong, all workers earn more. You don't even have to belong to a union - all you have to do is have union members as your neighbors.

Clearly, the assault on unions is an attack on the pay and benefits of all workers. Working families must fight back by working to reverse the decline in union representation and rejecting the politics of corporate-owned elected officials. And that means getting out to VOTE.