Unionization leads to substantial earnings gains for women, Black, and Latinx retail workers: Hourly and annual union premium for proxy cannabis retail workers by selected characteristics (2019$)

Hourly union difference Average full-time annual wages without union Full-time annual union difference Implied average full-time annual wages with union
All $1.35 $26,127 $2,806 $28,933
Occupation
Packers and packagers $1.15 $22,261 $2,390 $24,652
Health technologists $1.72 $33,273 $3,573 $36,846
Gender
Women $1.25 $25,487 $2,607 $28,094
Race/ethnicity
Black $1.11 $24,569 $2,319 $26,888
Latinx $2.11 $25,297 $4,389 $29,686

Notes: The union premium is how much more unionized workers earn in wages than similar nonunion workers in cannabis retail proxy jobs. Unionized workers are those workers covered by a union contract. The union premium is calculated using regression specification no. 3 from Table 6. For full methodology, see the Appendix. The full-time premium is estimated assuming workers work 40 hours per week and 52 weeks per year. 

Packers and packagers is the occupation with the lowest median wage in the retail proxy group. Health technologists is the occupation with the highest median wage in the retail proxy group. For a full list of occupations in the retail proxy group, see Appendix Table 3.

Source: EPI analysis of Current Population Survey ORG microdata (EPI 2021a). 

View the underlying data on epi.org.