Why Unions are Necessary: Raising Wages for Women and People of Color, Reducing the Pay Gap
Greater pay equality exists for union workers because of the clarity that is provided by a union contract. Collective bargaining agreements apply to all workers at a job, regardless of their race or gender. Workers with unions feel more secure speaking out about pay and other workplace issues, because they know they have the power of a union.
Men still hold the highest-paying jobs in construction and manufacturing, where women’s pay is still mostly in service occupations and industries which have lower pay scales. For this reason the wages of women and workers of color trend lower. This gap is even larger for workers without the benefit of a union. Having a union reduces the women's wage gap by nearly 40% compared to the pay gap experienced by non-union women.
Hourly wages for women represented by unions are 9.2% higher on average than for nonunionized women in similar jobs
Union-represented workers in service occupations make 87% more in total compensation and 56% more in wages than their nonunion counterparts.
Black and Hispanic workers get a larger boost from unionization. The result of unionizing is that collective bargaining lifts wages of black and Hispanic workers closer to those of their white counterparts.
Women in unions earn higher and more equal wages, have greater access to affordable health benefits and are less likely to be fired without just cause, according to the recently-released fact sheet by the National Women’s Law Center.
Source: BLS, “Median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by union affiliation and selected characteristics, 2019-2020 annual averages,” Table 2 in in Union Members – 2020 (Washington, DC: Jan. 22,2021), https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.t02.htm. Historical data available at https://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpslutab2.htm.
Union pay transparency helps to interrupt a culture of secrecy around pay that often makes it extremely difficult for individual workers to prevent or discover disparities.
