Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, REPORTS—EPI argues tripling union membership would raise wages, reshape worker bargaining power, (Aug 12, 2026)

By Patricia K. Ruiz, J.D.

The analysis projects broad economic, social, and civic effects from restoring union density to roughly its mid-century level.

A new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) contends that increasing U.S. union membership to 30 percent would generate substantial wage gains, reduce income inequality, narrow racial pay gaps, expand access to health insurance, and strengthen civic participation. The report examines the potential effects of restoring union density to approximately its 1950s level and outlines federal and state policy changes that researchers say could help achieve that goal. It also argues that decades of declining unionization have weakened worker bargaining power and contributed to growing economic inequality.

Report framework. The report, published July 15, 2026, analyzes a scenario in which union membership rises from 10 percent of wage and salary workers in 2025 to 30 percent. According to the authors, the increase would remain below the level that could be reached if all nonunion workers who say they would vote to unionize were able to do so. The report states that 14.7 million workers were union members in 2025, representing 10 percent of wage and salary workers, following an increase from 9.9 percent in 2024.

Wage and income effects. The report's central economic finding is that tripling union membership would deliver a 14.5 percent raise for the median worker. Researchers estimate that increase would amount to more than $7,700 annually for a typical worker and nearly $270,000 over a 35-year career. The report further projects that stronger unionization would shift approximately $1.2 trillion to workers each year and reverse about one-third of the rise in inequality experienced since 1979.

Connection to inequality. The authors argue that declining union membership has coincided with wage suppression and increasing inequality. The report states that productivity growth has substantially outpaced compensation growth since 1979 and that workers now receive a historically low share of corporate-sector income. According to the report, the divergence between productivity and pay reflects both rising wage inequality and a shrinking share of economic income flowing to workers.

Racial wage gaps and benefits. The report projects that higher union density would significantly reduce racial wage disparities because unions tend to generate larger wage gains for Black and Hispanic workers than for white workers. Researchers estimate that tripling union membership would close racial wage gaps by more than one-third. The report also concludes that increased unionization would expand access to employer-provided health insurance and reduce the number of nonelderly people without health coverage by roughly 25 percent, while unions' advocacy for public programs would further lower uninsured rates.

Community and democratic impacts. Beyond wages and benefits, the report links higher union density to broader community outcomes. It states that states with stronger union presence invest more in public education, report higher rates of unemployment insurance recipiency, and have adopted Medicaid expansion. The report also contends that unions support democratic participation by increasing voter turnout, developing civic skills among workers, and defending voting rights, adding that states with higher union density have enacted fewer voter-restriction measures than states with lower levels of unionization.

Legislative proposals. The report identifies federal labor-law reform as a key component of rebuilding union membership. It highlights the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which the authors say would streamline union formation, establish penalties for labor-law violations, override so-called right-to-work laws, and prohibit mandatory captive-audience meetings. The report also points to the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, describing it as legislation that would guarantee collective bargaining rights for public-sector workers nationwide.

Additional recommendations. The authors advance two new policy proposals they contend would broaden the benefits of collective bargaining. One would require that newly unionized workers obtaining first contracts through arbitration receive at least a cost-of-living adjustment, which the report estimates could provide roughly $2,000 annually for a typical worker under a 3 percent adjustment. The second proposal would trigger default collective bargaining in companies where CEO-to-worker pay ratios exceed 100-to-1, a measure the authors say would address imbalances in bargaining power.

State-level changes. The report emphasizes reforms at the state level. Researchers estimate that eliminating right-to-work laws and restrictions on public-sector bargaining would increase national union density from 9.9 percent to 14.4 percent. Additional recommendations include extending collective bargaining rights to groups not fully covered under federal labor law, protecting workers from mandatory anti-union meetings, and extending unemployment insurance eligibility to workers engaged in strikes.

Bottom line. The report concludes that a substantial increase in union membership would affect not only worker pay and benefits but also inequality, public policy outcomes, and civic participation. Framing union density at 30 percent as a benchmark tied to historical levels of union strength, the authors present a roadmap of federal and state reforms that they argue could expand collective bargaining and increase worker bargaining power throughout the economy.

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