Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, REPORTS—Unions are good for communities and democracy, according to new report, (Aug 25, 2025)

By WK Editorial Staff

“In the same way unions give workers a voice at work, with a direct impact on wages and working conditions, the data suggest that unions also give workers a voice in shaping their communities.”

According to a new report released by the Economic Policy Institute, unions are not only good for employees’ wages and working conditions; they also help workers have a say in shaping their communities.

Among other things, the report indicates that between 1979 and 2024, median wages rose more in states where unionization declined less; the productivity—pay gap has grown more slowly in states with smaller declines in unionization since 1979; in high-union-density states, 2023 median household income was on average more than $12,000 higher than in low-union-density states; in states with higher union densities, the share of people without any form of health insurance was 5.7 percent, compared with 9 percent in states with lower union densities; 70.6 percent of states with the highest union density have enacted paid sick leave legislation, compared with only 11.8 percent of low-union-density states; states with higher unionization rates spend substantially more per pupil on education than low-union-density states ($22,777 per pupil versus $15,568); and since 2021, low-union-density states have passed 44 voter restriction laws, whereas high-union-density states passed only six such laws.

Union density in the report is measured as the share of workers in a state who are members of a union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and the data were averaged across three years to account for volatility. The 17 states with the highest union density are considered the “high-union-density states”, the next 17 are medium, and the remaining 17 are “low-union-density states”. For example, South Carolina’s density comes in at the lowest, with three percent union density, and Hawaii’s density comes in at the highest, with a 25.5 percent union density.

Concepts measured by the report include economic wellbeing, personal health and wellbeing, and democratic wellbeing.

News: Reports EconomicNews LaborNews