A new Economic Policy Institute report argues that Colorado should enact historic legislation that’s under consideration to restore workers’ collective bargaining rights.

Colorado’s state law currently limits workers’ freedom to bargain by banning negotiations over union security unless workers who’ve already voted to form a union pursue and win (by supermajority) a state-mandated second election. This second election requirement is part of an 82-year-old statute from an era defined by often violent and white supremacist hostility to worker organizing.

Data show that Colorado’s second election requirement has suppressed unionization rates for decades, producing similar outcomes as states with anti-union “right-to-work” laws. Currently, Colorado’s union membership rate (7.7%) is well below the national average of 9.9%.

The declines in Colorado’s unionization rate have been accompanied by a dramatic increase in income inequality, outpacing even stark rises in national inequality. For example, the share of income going to the top 10% has grown from just under one-third (31%) in 1978 to now nearly half (48%) of all income in the state.

“Colorado’s second election rule has posed unnecessary obstacles to workers’ right to a union. As the unionization rate has declined in Colorado, inequality has skyrocketed. It’s time for Colorado policymakers to remove barriers to unionization,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at EPI.

Colorado’s state law creates additional barriers to unionizing for workers who already face union busting when exercising the right to organize under federal law. Nationally, employers are charged with labor law violations in 41.5% of all union elections.

Removing barriers to unionization would enable more Coloradans to improve their wages and working conditions. On average, workers covered by a union contract earn 10.2% more than nonunionized counterparts and are more likely to have employer-provided health and retirement benefits.

“At a moment when workers are looking to unions as critical vehicles for fixing what’s broken in our wildly unequal economy, it’s Colorado’s turn to play a leading role in helping to restore worker bargaining power after decades of its erosion,” said Jennifer Sherer, Deputy Director of EPI’s Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN).