Median Worker Makes $3,250 Less Per Year Than in 1979 Due to Decline in Unions by Sharon Zhang, Truthout, April 8, 2021 https://truthout.org/articles/median-worker-makes-3250-less-per-year-than-in-1979-due-to-decline-in-unions/
As unionization and collective bargaining have declined in the U.S., wages have also declined for the average worker over the past four decades, finds a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released Thursday. “A major factor depressing wage growth for middle earners and driving the growth of wage inequality over the last four decades has been the erosion of collective bargaining,” wrote Lawrence Mishel of EPI. For the average worker, the decline in unionization has led to a decrease in wages of $1.56 per hour worked, or the equivalent of $3,250 less per year. This is a 7.9 percent decrease from 1979 to 2017. . . . Decreasing union membership has also caused an increase in the wage gap between the upper- and middle-classes, finds EPI. Deunionization is responsible for a large part of the growth of the wage gap between those in the 90th percentile of earners and the 50th percentile over the past four decades. “Deunionization has this result because it depressed the wages of middle-wage earners but had little impact on high-wage earners at the 90th percentile,” writes EPI. . . . The long-term decline in union membership in the U.S. is a result of laws like the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which enacted restrictions on unions, many of which still exist. A 2018 court case, Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, also weakened unions by declaring it unconstitutional for unions to require fees for collective bargaining. The decline in unionization isn’t for lack of interest among workers — as EPI points out in a different report — because a higher proportion of nonunion workers say they would vote for a union than nonunion workers from 40 years ago did. Instead, the decline of unions in the country can be attributed largely to strong corporate opposition to unionization. As has been demonstrated countless times over the past years, and especially publicly so by Amazon recently, corporations have been empowered by weak labor laws to pull out all stops, including illegally firing workers and spending millions of dollars to stop unionization efforts. . . . One solution to declining union membership could be the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act, which was passed in the House last month. The PRO Act makes it easier for workers to unionize by, among other provisions, giving the NLRB more authority to punish companies for breaking labor laws. It also contains a provision to override so-called “right-to-work” laws that weaken unions financially. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7836): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7836 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81939367/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
