Union workers more likely to get benefits of every kind
Union members are much more
likely than nonunion workers to have
retirement and health benefits, accord-
ing to a July 17 report by the U.S. De-
partment of Labor’s Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS).
Fully 89 percent of union workers
have an employer-provided retirement
plan of some kind — compared to 48
percent of nonunion workers. Union
members are both more likely to have
access to a retirement benefit (95 to 63
percent) and more likely participate in it
when they do have access (93 to 76 per-
cent.) Meanwhile, 79 percent of union
workers have employer-provided med-
ical benefits, compared to 50 percent of
nonunion workers. Again, union work-
ers are more likely to have access to the
benefit (95 vs. 68 percent) and more
likely to participate (83 vs. 73 percent).
Employers also pay a bigger share of
Benefits of belonging
Union beats nonunion for every kind of benefit
union
workers
nonunion
workers
Retirement
89%
48%
Medical
79%
50%
Paid sick leave
82%
62%
Paid vacation
75%
74%
Paid holidays
81%
75%
Category of benefit
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, March 2013.
AUGUST 16, 2013
the health insurance premium in union
workplaces: On average, union em-
ployers pay 87 percent of the premium
for single coverage, compared to 79
percent in nonunion workplaces. And
for family coverage, union employers
pay on average 80 percent of the pre-
mium, compared to 65 percent for non-
union employers.
The union edge holds up, too, for
other benefits, like paid sick leave: 84
percent of union workers have it, com-
pared to 62 percent of nonunion work-
ers. The difference is narrower for paid
vacation (81 to 75 percent) and paid
holidays (75 to 74 percent.)
For each category of benefit, the dif-
ference between union and nonunion is
greatest in the private sector. In general,
public sector workers in state and local
government are more likely to have
benefits than private sector workers, and
the difference between union and non-
union workers in the public sector isn’t
as great.
The BLS report uses data from a
March 2013 survey of 11,893 employ-
ers. Besides union and nonunion, the re-
port also breaks down the benefit data
by industry sector, size of employer, and
whether workers are full- or part-time.
Benefits are more common at large em-
ployers and among full-time workers.
It’s not clear in the report to what ex-
tent union membership — by itself — is
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
responsible for the difference, since
unionization is more common at large
employers and among full-time workers.
But the survey and the report are
conducted annually, and the data — and
the differences — are pretty consistent
year to year. The data show that em-
ployers are about as likely today to offer
health benefits as they were five years
ago, but that the employer share of
health premiums has dropped a percent
or two for both union and nonunion
workers on average. Meanwhile, non-
union workers are 3 percentage points
less likely to have retirement benefits
than they were five years ago, while
union workers are actually three per-
centage points more likely to have the
benefits. The survey doesn’t distinguish
between traditional defined benefit re-
tirement plans, which are in decline,
and the 401(k)-style “defined contribu-
tion” retirement plans, which have be-
come more common.
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