Union Membership Falls to Historic Low
March 11, 2007
by Employment & Labor Law / Employee Benefits Group
Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP
Copyright © 2007
The percentage of employees in the private sector who were union members dropped to 7.4 percent in 2006, a new historic low, according to a January 25, 2007 report by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Union Members – "The number of persons belonging to a union fell by 326,000 in 2006 to 15.4 million." Overall, 12 percent of all workers (public and private sector) were union members in 2006, down from 12.5 percent a year earlier. "The union membership rate has steadily declined from 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available."
Public Sector vs. Private Sector – In 2006, workers in the public sector (36.2 percent) had a union membership rate that was nearly five times that of private sector (7.4 percent) employees.
Industries – Among private industries, utilities (29.1 percent) had the highest union membership rate in 2006, followed by transportation and warehousing (23.4 percent), telecommunications (22.1 percent), educational services (15.9 percent), construction (13.6 percent), and manufacturing (12.5 percent). Food services and drinking places (1.4 percent), finance (1.7 percent) and professional and technical services (1.8 percent) had the lowest unionization rates.
Men vs. Women – "In 2006, the union membership rate was higher for men (13 percent) than for women (10.9 percent). The gap between their rates has narrowed considerably since 1983, when the rate for men was about 10 percentage points higher than the rate for women."
Race of Union Members – "Black workers were more likely to be union members (14.5 percent) that were whites (11.7 percent), Asians (10.4 percent), or Hispanics (9.8 percent)."
Age of Union Members – "Among age groups, union membership rates were highest among workers 45 to 64 years old (16 percent) and were lowest among those ages 16 to 24 (4.4 percent)."
Full-time vs. Part-time – Full-time workers (13.1 percent) were more than twice as likely as part-time workers (6.3 percent) to be union members.
Nonmembers – About 1.5 million workers were represented by a union on their main job in 2006, while not being union members themselves.
States – "Just under half (7.5 million) of the 15.4 million union members in the U.S. lived in six states: California (2.3 million), New York (2 million), Illinois (0.9 million), Michigan (0.8 million), New Jersey (0.8 million), and Pennsylvania (0.7 million), though these states accounted for about one-third of wage and salary employment nationally."
Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Arizona – In 2006, the percentage of workers represented by a union declined in Missouri (from 12.6 to 11.9 percent) and Kansas (from 9.5 to 9.3 percent), stayed the same in Nebraska (held at 9.5 percent) and increased in Arizona (from 7.7 to 9.7 percent).
Earnings – "In 2006, full-time wage and salary workers who were union members had median usual weekly earnings of $833, compared with a median of $642 for wage and salary workers who were not represented by unions. The difference reflects a variety of influences in addition to coverage by a collective bargaining agreement, including variations in the distributions of union members and nonunion employees by occupation, industry, firm size or geographical region."
Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP is one of the country's largest law firms with more than 335 attorneys in more than 45-industry-focused areas. If you would like more information regarding this summary, please contact one of our Employment & Labor Law and Employee Benefits attorneys.
Law at Work is designed to give general information and is not intended to be a comprehensive summary or to treat exhaustively the subjects and matters covered. The information appearing herein does not constitute legal advice or opinions. Such advice and opinions are provided only upon engagement with respect to specific factual situations. Nothing contained herein shall be considered as an admission in any matter or controversy.
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