The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has posted its yearly report concerning union membership rates in the United States. The full release is available HERE and also appears below.
Among many other findings, the BLS noted that union workers “had median usual weekly earnings of $1,337 in 2024, while nonunion workers had median usual weekly earnings of $1,138.” For an entire year, that’s a difference of more than $10,000.
Responding to the report, the AFL-CIO issued the following news item:
Broken Labor Law, Corporate Union-Busting Keep Union Density Flat Despite Renewed Organizing Push, Popularity of Unions
Today the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its annual report on union density, showing that the percentage of workers in a union remained flat … despite huge organizing wins across the country and across different sectors of the economy.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued the following statement in response to the report:
It’s plain as day that more working people want a union now than at any point in our lifetimes. Across our economy and in every part of the country, workers are standing together to demand fair treatment, better wages, and dignity and respect on the job. Our organizing has resulted in remarkable victories in traditional and emerging sectors like manufacturing, health care, clean energy, infrastructure, retail and restaurants, hospitality, and on college campuses, in technology, in public service and much more.
Today’s BLS numbers don’t begin to tell the real story of the desire workers have to join a union. The number of union elections has doubled since 2021, boosted by efforts from the previous Biden administration to give workers a fair shot at joining a union. In 2024 alone, there were nearly 1,800 union elections, with workers winning the vast majority. Many of these victories are not reflected in the numbers released today because employers are exploiting a broken system to delay bargaining a first contract. But these wins—including an election for the first-ever Whole Foods union in Philadelphia just last night—are proof positive of working people’s incredible desire to join and form unions.
Public approval for unions is at a nearly 70-year high because in an economy that continues to heavily tilt to the wealthy few and leaves workers behind, the only way to get ahead is by joining together. The recent successful organizing campaigns at places like Starbucks, Amazon, Volkswagen, and other massive corporations show workers’ momentum and hunger to join unions, no matter how many hurdles bosses and anti-union politicians throw our way. There are 60 million workers who would join a union today if given the opportunity, but between broken labor law and corporate bosses like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos engaging in often illegal union-busting every year with little consequence, far too few get that chance. It’s time for change.
We call on the Trump administration to live up to its campaign promises to support workers by prioritizing fixing America’s broken labor law through the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act. These bills would finally update our archaic, broken laws and give workers what we so desperately want: a free and fair shot at joining a union on the job.
Our focus is simple: organizing and ensuring every worker in America who wants a union has the freedom to join one. Many unions are experiencing an all-time high in membership and continue to grow. The AFL-CIO is now nearly 15 million members strong with the recent affiliation of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the most unified labor movement we’ve seen in decades. This year, workers will continue to organize vigorously, flex our power through strikes and other workplace actions, and demand that corporate CEOs and politicians give us the respect we deserve.
(Here’s the BLS release)
Union Members Summary
UNION MEMBERS – 2024
The union membership rate – the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions – was 9.9 percent in 2024, little changed from the prior year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.3 million, also showed little movement over the year. In 1983, the first year for which comparable data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent and there were 17.7 million union members.
These data on union membership are collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 eligible households that obtains information on employment and unemployment among the nation’s civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over. For further information, see the Technical Note in this news release.
Highlights from the 2024 data:
–The union membership rate of public-sector workers (32.2 percent) continued to be more than five times higher than the rate of private-sector workers (5.9 percent). (See table 3.)
–The highest unionization rates were among workers in education, training, and library occupations (32.3 percent) and protective service occupations (29.6 percent). (See table 3.)
–Men continued to have a higher union membership rate (10.2 percent) than women (9.5 percent). (See table 1.)
–Black workers remained more likely to be union members than White, Asian, and Hispanic workers. (See table 1.)
–Nonunion workers had median weekly earnings that were 85 percent of earnings for workers who were union members ($1,138 versus $1,337). (The comparisons of earnings in this news release are on a broad level and do not control for many factors that can be important in explaining earnings differences.) (See table 2.)
–Among states, Hawaii and New York had the highest union membership rates (26.5 percent and 20.6 percent, respectively), while the lowest rates were in North Carolina (2.4 percent), South Dakota (2.7 percent), and South Carolina (2.8 percent). (See table 5.)
Industry and Occupation of Union Members
In 2024, the number of employees who belonged to unions was similar in the public sector (7.0 million) and the private sector (7.2 million). The number of private-sector union members declined by 184,000 in 2024, offsetting the increase in 2023. The number of public-sector union members changed little in 2024.(See table 3.)
The public-sector union membership rate, at 32.2 percent, also changed little over the year. The union membership rate continued to be highest in local government (38.2 percent), which employs many workers in heavily unionized occupations, such as police officers, firefighters, and teachers.
The union membership rate in the private sector declined by 0.1 percentage point over the year to 5.9 percent. Industries with the highest unionization rates in 2024 included utilities (18.7 percent), transportation and warehousing (15.8 percent), and educational services (13.2 percent). The lowest unionization rates occurred in finance (0.8 percent), insurance (1.2 percent), professional and technical services (1.2 percent), agricultural and related industries (1.4 percent), and food services and drinking places (1.6 percent).
Among occupational groups, the highest union membership rates in 2024 were in education, training, and library occupations (32.3 percent), protective service occupations (29.6 percent), and construction and extraction occupations (15.4 percent). Membership rates were lowest in farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (1.5 percent) and in sales and related occupations (2.7 percent).
Selected Characteristics of Union Members
In 2024, the unionization rate for women was unchanged over the year at 9.5 percent, and the number of women who were union members changed little at 6.6 million. Meanwhile, the unionization rate for men declined by 0.3 percentage point to 10.2 percent, and the number of men who were union members declined by 216,000 to 7.6 million. The gap between union membership rates for men and women has narrowed considerably since 1983, when rates for men and women were 24.7 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively. (See table 1.)
Among the major race and ethnicity groups, Black workers continued to have a higher union membership rate in 2024 (11.8 percent) than White workers (9.6 percent), Asian workers (8.5 percent), and Hispanic workers (8.5 percent). Over the year, the union membership rate was unchanged for Black workers, while it declined for White (-0.2 percentage point) and Hispanic (-0.5 percentage point) workers. The rate increased by 0.7 percentage point for Asian workers.
By age, workers ages 45 to 54 had the highest union membership rate in 2024, at 12.6 percent. Younger workers–those ages 16 to 24–had the lowest union membership rate, at 4.3 percent.
In 2024, the union membership rate continued to be higher for full-time workers (10.7 percent) than for part-time workers (5.7 percent). Over the year, the rate for full-time workers declined by 0.2 percentage point, while the rate for part-time workers increased by 0.5 percentage point.
Union Representation
In 2024, 16.0 million wage and salary workers were represented by a union, little changed from 2023. The percentage of workers represented by a union was 11.1 percent in 2024, also little different than a year earlier. Workers represented by a union include both union members (14.3 million) and workers who report no union affiliation but whose jobs are covered by a union contract (1.8 million). (See table 1.)
Earnings
Among full-time wage and salary workers, union members had median usual weekly earnings of $1,337 in 2024, while nonunion workers had median usual weekly earnings of $1,138. In addition to coverage by a collective bargaining agreement, these earnings differences reflect a variety of factors, including variations in the distributions of union members and nonunion employees by occupation, industry, age, firm size, or geographic region. (See tables 2 and 4.)
Union Membership by State
In 2024, 30 states had union membership rates below the U.S. average (9.9 percent), while 20 states and the District of Columbia had rates above it. All states in both the East South Central and West South Central divisions had union membership rates below the national average, while all states in both the Middle Atlantic and Pacific divisions had rates above it. (See table 5.)
Ten states had union membership rates below 5.0 percent in 2024. North Carolina had the lowest rate (2.4 percent). The next lowest rates were in South Dakota and South Carolina (2.7 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively). Two states had union membership rates over 20.0 percent in 2024: Hawaii (26.5 percent) and New York (20.6 percent).
In 2024, about 29 percent of the 14.3 million union members lived in just two states (California at 2.4 million and New York at 1.7 million). However, these two states accounted for 17 percent of wage and salary employment nationally.
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