Unions and Labor Standards

Strong unions and employee organizing rights foster a vibrant middle class because the protections, rights, and wages that unions secure affect union and nonunion workers alike.

Unfortunately, eroded labor standards, weakening unions, changing norms, guestworker policies that undercut wages, and monetary policies that prioritize controlling inflation over lowering unemployment have helped depress wages and erode living standards for all workers.

EPI monitors factors that affect American work lives, including unpaid overtime, wage theft, the minimum wage, immigration laws, and collective bargaining rights.

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The power of unions, in a single chart

The Chart

As union membership declines, income inequality increases: Union membership and share of income going to the top 10%, 1917–present

 

Union membership rate Share of income going to the top 10%
1917 10.4% 45.0%
1918 11.5% 44.0%
1919 13.4% 45.9%
1920 16.6% 44.1%
1921 17.4% 47.4%
1922 13.4% 46.1%
1923 11.2% 43.7%
1924 11.2% 45.7%
1925 10.8% 47.2%
1926 10.6% 47.6%
1927 10.7% 47.1%
1928 10.6% 48.2%
1929 10.5% 47.0%
1930 11.2% 46.3%
1931 12.0% 46.3%
1932 12.5% 48.3%
1933 11.0% 48.0%
1934 11.5% 49.1%
1935 12.8% 48.1%
1936 13.2% 48.4%
1937 21.8% 47.5%
1938 26.6% 47.1%
1939 27.6% 48.6%
1940 26.0% 49.0%
1941 26.9% 47.0%
1942 25.0% 42.4%
1943 30.1% 38.8%
1944 32.6% 36.1%
1945 34.2% 35.3%
1946 33.4% 37.0%
1947 32.5% 36.9%
1948 30.8% 38.9%
1949 31.5% 38.4%
1950 30.5% 39.0%
1951 31.3% 37.9%
1952 31.4% 36.6%
1953 32.6% 35.6%
1954 33.5% 36.0%
1955 32.0% 36.7%
1956 32.2% 35.7%
1957 31.7% 35.7%
1958 32.0% 35.5%
1959 31.0% 36.0%
1960 30.4% 35.5%
1961 29.2% 35.6%
1962 28.9% 36.2%
1963 28.2% 36.6%
1964 28.0% 37.0%
1965 27.6% 36.7%
1966 27.1% 36.4%
1967 27.0% 35.3%
1968 26.9% 35.5%
1969 26.1% 34.1%
1970 26.4% 33.6%
1971 26.1% 34.1%
1972 25.5% 34.4%
1973 25.0% 34.6%
1974 24.9% 33.6%
1975 24.6% 34.0%
1976 23.9% 33.9%
1977 23.1% 34.3%
1978 22.6% 34.0%
1979 23.4% 34.3%
1980 22.2% 33.8%
1981 21.4% 34.3%
1982 20.7% 34.6%
1983 20.1% 35.4%
1984 18.8% 36.5%
1985 18.0% 36.6%
1986 17.5% 36.3%
1987 17.0% 37.5%
1988 16.8% 39.2%
1989 16.4% 38.8%
1990 16.0% 38.8%
1991 16.0% 38.3%
1992 15.7% 39.4%
1993 15.7% 39.1%
1994 15.5% 39.1%
1995 14.9% 39.9%
1996 14.5% 40.8%
1997 14.1% 41.6%
1998 13.9% 41.9%
1999 13.9% 42.3%
2000 13.4% 42.7%
2001 13.3% 41.9%
2002 13.3% 41.5%
2003 12.9% 41.6%
2004 12.5% 42.4%
2005 12.5% 43.6%
2006 12.0% 44.3%
2007 12.1% 44.0%
2008 12.4% 43.6%
2009 12.3% 42.5%
2010 11.9% 43.8%
2011 11.8% 44.3%
2012 11.3% 45.6%
2013 11.3% 44.9%
2014 11.1% 45.6%
2015 11.1% 45.5%
2016 10.7% 45.4%
2017 10.7% 45.5%
2018 10.5% 45.8%
2019 10.3% 45.7%
2020 10.8% 44.6%
2021 10.3% 46.1%
2022 10.1% 46.9%
2023 10.0% 46.8%
2024 9.9%
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Economic Policy Institute

Note: Data prior to 1983 report union density as a share of non-agricultural employment while more recent data report union density as a share of overall employment to remain consistent with government reporting. The small difference based on alternative methods has no bearing on the economic findings shown.

Source: Data on union membership from Freeman (1997) from 1917 to 1982, updated to the present using Bureau of Labor Statistics, series ID: LUU0204899600. Income inequality data (top 10% share of pre-tax income) are from the World Inequality Database.

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