Report: Face of Unions More Diverse
The face of the union movement has changed dramatically over the past 25 years. In 1983, more than half of all union workers were white men, few union workers had a college degree and nearly one-third were in manufacturing. Today, almost half are women, more than one-third have college degrees and only one in 10 work in manufacturing.
“The Changing Face of Labor, 1983-2008,” a new report released today by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), shows the union movement is more diverse than 25 years ago. The makeup of union members reflects similar shifts in the overall workforce. About half of union workers are in the public sector, while one of every 10 is in manufacturing; and the remaining four are in the private sector outside of manufacturing. Click here to read the report.
Says CEPR senior economist John Schmitt, one of the report’s authors:
The view that the typical union worker is a white male manufacturing worker may have been correct a quarter of a century ago, but it’s not an accurate description of those in today’s labor movement. The unionized workforce is changing with the country, The fastest growing groups in the overall economy are also the fastest growing groups in the labor movement.
Report: Paid Sick Leave Doesn’t Hurt Economy
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As Congress begins considering legislation that would guarantee workers up to seven paid sick days per year, a new study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), a nonpartisan think tank, finds that mandatory paid sick days do not lead to higher unemployment.
“Paid Sick Days Don’t Cause Unemployment” examines the connection between government-mandated paid sick days and the national rate of unemployment in 22 highly developed countries. Click here to read the report.
Says John Schmitt, a senior economist at CEPR and co-author of the report:
Despite frequent claims to the contrary from some in the business community, we found no correlation between paid sick days and unemployment. Guaranteeing paid sick days does not put countries at a competitive disadvantage.
Unions Increase Wages of Service Workers
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After decades of disappointing wage growth for U.S. workers, a report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shows that joining a union significantly boosts the wages of service-sector workers.
The report, “Unions and Upward Mobility for Service-Sector Employees,” shows that union membership raises the wages of the average service-sector worker by 10.1 percent, or about $2 per hour. According to the report, 13.3 percent of service-sector workers were either members of unions or covered by union contracts at their workplace in the 2004-2007 period. Click here to read the report.
On average, joining a union increases by 19 percentage points the likelihood that a service-sector worker will have employer-provided health insurance. Also, unionized service-sector workers were 25 percentage points more likely to have pensions than their nonunion peers.
Trumka and Economist Schmitt Explain the Need for Employee Free Choice
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and economist John Schmitt appeared last week on Building Bridges Radio, a nationally syndicated radio show, to discuss the Employee Free Choice Act.
Cutting through misleading corporate rhetoric, Trumka explained what the Employee Free Choice Act does and why it’s needed to restore fairness in the workplace for workers who want to exercise their right to bargain for better benefits, wages and working conditions.
The Employee Free Choice Act puts the choice of how to form a union in the hands of workers. Currently, it’s in the hands of employers, and they like it that way.
The elections that they talk about may sound like the most democratic approach, but the NLRB process is nothing like democratic elections in our society, like presidential elections, for example. Here, one side has all the power—the employer controls the voters’ paychecks, their livelihood, has unlimited access to speak against a union in the workplace while restricting pro-union speech and has the freedom to intimidate and coerce the voters…and they use that freely.
Union Card Raises Wages for Women as Much as Year in College
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A new study confirms the union advantage for working women. After controlling for several factors apart from union membership (education, age, industry and state), women who belong to unions earn, on average, 11.2 percent more—about $2 an hour—than their nonunion peers. That’s equivalent to what a woman worker would gain by spending a year in college.
In addition, women in unions in 2007 “were about 19 percentage points more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and about 25 percentage points more likely to have an employer-provided pension,” according to the study, Unions and Upward Mobility for Women Workers, by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR
Report: Latinos in Unions Fare Better Than Nonunion Peers
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The current economic crisis is hitting Latinos hard and they need the same help that all workers do—better wages, safe working conditions and a union. A new report marks National Hispanic Heritage Month with the news that the union difference benefits Latino workers, just as it does all other union workers.
In the report, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) documents a large wage and benefit advantage for Latino workers who join unions compared with their nonunion counterparts. The report, Unions and Upward Mobility for Latino Workers, found that unionized Latino workers earned, on average, 17.6 percentage points more than nonunion Latinos. Latino union members also were much more likely to have health insurance benefits and a pension plan.
