Union contracts raise pay for workers. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that tripling union membership in this country would deliver a 14.5% raise to the median worker—more than $7,700 a year or the equivalent of 7.5 extra weeks of pay annually. This adds up to nearly $270,000 over a 35-year career. Unions can also be powerful tools for combating racial pay discrimination; the new report shows tripling union membership would narrow the racial wage gap by more than a third.
Tripling union density wouldn’t only benefit union members. Nonunion workers would also see large raises, because strong unions lift standards across the economy. All told, EPI estimates that tripling union membership would shift $1.2 trillion of wealth in the economy to working people every year, reversing a third of the rise in inequality since 1979. And because union workers can win better benefits like health insurance, tripling union membership would also provide health care to 6.8 million more Americans. It’s what the labor movement calls the union difference: higher wages, access to health care, retirement security, paid time off and sick leave, and dignity on the job.
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