Union numbers in United States held steady in 2013
Washington again the
fourth-most unionized
state, while Oregon
drops to 12th
Union membership held steady in
2013 at 11.3 percent of the U.S. work-
force, according to the latest annual re-
port from the Bureau of Labor Statis-
tics, a unit of the U.S. Department of
Labor. Slight growth in the workforce
meant there were 162,000 more union
members in 2013 than in 2012, bring-
ing total U.S. union membership to a
little over 14.5 million.
That’s still down quite a bit from
1983 — the first year for which com-
parable data are available — when
there were 17.7 million union workers,
and union members made up 20.1 per-
cent of the workforce. But it suggests
union membership decline may have
slowed or stopped for the time being.
Besides union members, another 1.5
million workers were represented by a
union but chose not to become mem-
bers. That brings the total represented
by a union to 16 million, 12.4 percent
of the workforce.
The union membership figures var-
ied by occupation, industry, and by age,
gender, and race:
• Public sector workers had a union
membership rate of 35.3 percent, five
times the rate of private sector workers,
6.7 percent.
• Unionization was highest in edu-
cation, library, and protective services
occupations, at 35.3 percent. Other
heavily unionized sectors included util-
ities at 25.6 percent, transportation and
warehousing at 19.6 percent, telecom-
munications at 14.4 percent, construc-
tion at 14.1 percent, and manufacturing
at 10.1 percent. The least unionized in-
dustry sectors were agriculture and fi-
nance, where only 1.0 percent of work-
ers were union members, and food and
beverage services, 1.3 percent. Farm-
ing, fishing and forestry were the least
unionized occupations, at 2.1 percent.
• Older workers were up to three
times as likely to be union members:
Over 15 percent of workers 45 to 64
were union members, compared with
11.0 percent for workers 25 to 34 and
4.8 percent for workers under 25.
• Men had slightly higher rates (13.0
percent) than women (11.8 percent.)
• Black workers were most likely to
be in a union (15.0 percent) compared
to whites (12.2 percent), Asians (10.4
percent) and Hispanics (10.3 percent).
New York had the highest union
membership rate in the nation (24.4
percent), followed by Alaska (23.1 per-
cent) and Hawaii (22.1 percent). North
Carolina had the lowest rate (3.0 per-
cent), followed by Arkansas (3.5 per-
cent) and South Carolina and Missis-
sippi (3.7 percent).
Washington ranked fourth most
unionized, at 18.9 percent. Oregon
ranked Number 12, at 13.9 percent.
That was down from ninth place (15.7
percent) in 2012, and seventh place
(17.1 percent) in 2011. Among other
neighboring states, California had 16.4
percent, Nevada had 14.6 percent, and
Idaho had 4.7 percent.
The data on union membership
were collected as part of the Current
Population Survey (CPS), a monthly
sample survey of about 60,000 house-
holds covering employment in the
civilian non-institutional population.
The BLS union membership report is a
pretty accurate depiction of trends at
the national level, but at the state level,
data can be misinterpreted because mi-
nor year-to-year fluctuations — partic-
ularly in less populous states — may
not be statistically significant. Oregon’s
percentage in the survey has fluctuated
in the last 10 years, with a low of 13.8
percent in 2006 and a high of 17.1 per-
cent in 2011.
Given that caveat, Oregon’s union
membership was estimated at 208,000
in 2013, while Washington had an esti-
mated 546,000 union members.
The report also showed that union
members out-earn nonunion workers,
on average. Full-time union workers had
median weekly earnings of $950 com-
pared to $750 for nonunion workers.
The difference was even bigger in some
occupations: Median weekly earnings
for union construction workers was
$1,096, compared to $713 for nonunion.
Collective bargaining agreements ac-
count for some of the earnings differ-
ence, but not all: Union workers are
more likely to work in high-wage states
and at larger employers, and are some-
what more likely to work in higher-
wage occupations and industries.
In a statement accompanying this
year’s report, U.S. Secretary of Labor
Thomas Perez said the decline in union
membership in recent decades has
contributed to more working families
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PAGE 10
struggling to get by. “Workers’ ability
to form unions and engage in collective
bargaining has been a cornerstone of a
strong middle class,” Perez declared.
“When workers have a seat at the table,
they are better able to bargain for their
fair share of the value they helped cre-
ate; and that leads to greater economic
security and economic mobility for
everyone.”
503-939-8835
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FEBRUARY 7, 2014