State and local government employees’ characteristics (mean) and shares under different labor legal frameworks, by decade
1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Legal frameworks | ||||||
Duty to bargain | 1.9% | 37.8% | 53.8% | 66.6% | 64.8% | 62.8% |
Collective bargaining prohibited | 9.6% | 8.8% | 13.5% | 16.8% | 18.4% | 19.7% |
Meet and confer | 1.3% | 9.0% | 6.1% | 8.2% | 5.8% | 6.5% |
No state law | 87.1% | 44.4% | 26.5% | 8.4% | 11.0% | 11.0% |
Dispute resolution procedures | ||||||
Right to strike | 0.0% | 0.1% | 9.3% | 21.0% | 20.5% | 20.4% |
Binding interest arbitration | 0.0% | 1.9% | 7.7% | 9.2% | 9.7% | 9.5% |
Fact-finding | 0.6% | 24.7% | 37.4% | 35.3% | 32.9% | 32.5% |
Mediation final step | 0.0% | 3.3% | 9.6% | 8.7% | 8.6% | 7.9% |
Meet-and-confer mediation | 0.0% | 1.5% | 4.2% | 3.6% | 0.7% | 0.8% |
Mediation initial step | 0.0% | 23.3% | 49.5% | 53.3% | 50.9% | 49.6% |
Dues and fees collection | ||||||
Dues checkoff | 14.8% | 42.6% | 75.2% | 85.0% | 84.0% | 83.4% |
Open shop | 15.8% | 17.8% | 23.7% | 36.1% | 38.5% | 40.8% |
Agency Shop | 6.5% | 10.5% | 55.5% | 50.1% | 48.0% | 45.9% |
Characteristics | ||||||
Real annual earnings | $35,843 | $43,194 | $39,105 | $45,010 | $47,982 | $51,552 |
Years of education | 12.2 | 13.1 | 13.7 | 14.0 | 14.2 | 14.3 |
Bachelor’s degree only | 10.8% | 14.8% | 14.9% | 20.9% | 23.8% | 26.0% |
Graduate education | 11.2% | 19.7% | 24.0% | 20.7% | 21.4% | 27.7% |
College graduates plus | 22.0% | 34.4% | 38.8% | 41.6% | 45.2% | 53.7% |
Age | 40.6 | 41.8 | 40.1 | 41.9 | 43.4 | 45.9 |
Central city resident | 31.4% | 31.3% | 21.6% | 13.8% | 12.5% | |
City noncentral resident | 26.5% | 31.3% | 30.2% | 27.5% | 28.9% | |
City resident | 57.9% | 62.6% | 51.8% | 41.4% | 41.5% | |
Usual weekly hours | 41.8 | 42.4 | 42.7 | 42.6 | ||
Weeks worked in year | 49.5 | 49.1 | 49.2 | 49.3 | 49.4 | 49.3 |
Female | 26.4% | 41.9% | 45.5% | 49.0% | 52.5% | 57.1% |
Married | 76.6% | 75.2% | 69.1% | 68.7% | 66.6% | 66.9% |
Black | 9.2% | 11.2% | 13.6% | 12.7% | 13.3% | 11.9% |
Asian | 0.8% | 1.0% | 1.6% | 2.2% | 2.5% | 3.4% |
Hispanic | 2.3% | 2.6% | 4.4% | 5.9% | 7.6% | 9.1% |
Disabled | 2.9% | 3.9% | 3.4% | |||
State government employee | 31.2% | 32.8% | 34.0% | 33.5% | 30.6% | |
Teacher | 10.6% | 20.7% | 19.6% | 20.1% | 19.7% | 24.5% |
Police officer | 3.2% | 5.0% | 5.2% | 5.5% | 6.5% | 5.5% |
Firefighter | 1.8% | 2.4% | 2.2% | 2.1% | 2.1% | 1.9% |
Other local government employee | 40.7% | 40.3% | 38.3% | 38.2% | 37.5% | |
State private sector unionization | 29.7% | 27.7% | 23.1% | 16.3% | 13.5% | 11.8% |
Observations | 72,278 | 128,967 | 422,135 | 484,578 | 582,663 | 144,125 |
Note: The 1% individual weighted sample is restricted to full-time employees of state and local government who worked for a full year in the year prior to the sample.
Source: Public Use Microdata Sample of the U.S. Census for 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 and American Community Survey for 2010 (Ruggles et al. 2010) and NBER Collective Bargaining Law Data (Freeman and Valletta 1988)