Labor Unions and Your Paycheck
It’s Labor Day Weekend. So, let's talk about Labor Unions and your Paycheck!
Everyone knows SOMEONE in a labor union, and there's good reason for that. Many folks join unions for job security, benefits, and worker safety. But are unions the way to work in 2021 and beyond?
We got Five Fast Facts you need to know about labor unions in 2021...
🤏👀About 11% of all workers are union members - That’s about 14 million people nationwide. At their peak in 1954, 34.8% of all workers belonged to unions. But that was a loooong time ago and the numbers continue to decline bit by bit each year.
💪👨💼Unions are still strong especially in gov’t work - The union membership rate of public-sector workers is a whopping 35%, that’s 5x higher than the rate of private-sector union membership of only 6.3%.
🏭🏫From factories to firefighters and taxi cabs to teachers - Most of us think of “union work” as factory jobs (8.5%), skilled trades (12.8%), or transportation workers (17%). But the jobs with the highest rate of union workers are police, firefighters, security guards (34%), and educators (33.5%).
💵💸🤲Paychecks do benefit from unions...sort of Union workers, on average, earn about 16% more per week than non-unions workers ($1,144 vs. $958). Of course, when you account for cost of living in union-heavy states, the picture looks a bit less clear.
💵🤔Are unions good for Paychecks? That’s a tough question. According to government data, in 2019 the average union collected $2.5M in union dues from members and only 36% went to representing members. The rest, well, it usually goes to overhead costs and political lobbying.
Bottom line: Unions do a lot of good for a lot of people but they also come with added costs for workers and employers. It’s best to weigh the pros and cons and remember, according to the Supreme Court, you’re never legally required to join a union even if you are a public sector employee.
What do you think? Join the conversation on social media. We’re looking forward to having a Labor Day discussion about Labor Unions with you and all our readers!
