For release 10:00 a.m. (EST) Friday, January 27, 2012 USDL-12-0094
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UNION MEMBERS -- 2011
In 2011, the union membership rate--the percent of wage and salary workers who
were members of a union--was 11.8 percent, essentially unchanged from 11.9
percent in 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number
of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.8 million, also showed
little movement over the year. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union
data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent and there were
17.7 million union workers.
The data on union membership were collected as part of the Current Population
Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 households that obtains
information on employment and unemployment among the nation's civilian
noninstitutional population age 16 and over. For more information, see the
Technical Note.
Highlights from the 2011 data:
--Public-sector workers had a union membership rate (37.0 percent) more
than five times higher than that of private-sector workers (6.9
percent). (See table 3.)
--Workers in education, training, and library occupations had the
highest unionization rate, at 36.8 percent, while the lowest rate
occurred in sales and related occupations (3.0 percent). (See
table 3.)
--Black workers were more likely to be union members than were white,
Asian, or Hispanic workers. (See table 1.)
--Among states, New York continued to have the highest union membership
rate (24.1 percent) and North Carolina again had the lowest rate
(2.9 percent). (See table 5.)
Industry and Occupation of Union Members
In 2011, 7.6 million employees in the public sector belonged to a
union, compared with 7.2 million union workers in the private sector.
The union membership rate for public-sector workers (37.0 percent) was
substantially higher than the rate for private-sector workers (6.9
percent). Within the public sector, local government workers had the
highest union membership rate, 43.2 percent. This group includes
workers in heavily unionized occupations, such as teachers, police
officers, and firefighters. Private-sector industries with high
unionization rates included transportation and utilities (21.1
percent) and construction (14.0 percent), while low unionization rates
occurred in agriculture and related industries (1.4 percent) and in
financial activities (1.6 percent). (See table 3.)
Among occupational groups, education, training, and library
occupations (36.8 percent) and protective service occupations (34.5
percent) had the highest unionization rates in 2011. Sales and related
occupations (3.0 percent) and farming, fishing, and forestry
occupations (3.4 percent) had the lowest unionization rates. (See
table 3.)
Selected Characteristics of Union Members
The union membership rate was higher for men (12.4 percent) than for
women (11.2 percent) in 2011. (See table 1.) The gap between their
rates has narrowed considerably since 1983, when the rate for men was
about 10 percentage points higher than the rate for women. Between
1983 and 2011, the union membership rate for men declined by almost
half (12.3 percentage points), while the rate for women declined by
3.4 percentage points.
In 2011, among major race and ethnicity groups, black workers were
more likely to be union members (13.5 percent) than workers who were
white (11.6 percent), Asian (10.1 percent), or Hispanic (9.7 percent).
Black men had the highest union membership rate (14.6 percent), while
Asian men had the lowest rate (9.1 percent).
By age, the union membership rate was highest among workers 55 to 64
years old (15.7 percent). The lowest union membership rate occurred
among those ages 16 to 24 (4.4 percent).
Full-time workers were about twice as likely as part-time workers to
be union members, 13.1 percent compared with 6.4 percent.
Union Representation
In 2011, 16.3 million wage and salary workers were represented by a
union. This group includes both union members (14.8 million) and
workers who report no union affiliation but whose jobs are covered by
a union contract (1.5 million). (See table 1.) Government employees
comprised about half of the 1.5 million workers who were covered by a
union contract but were not members of a union. (See table 3.)
Earnings
In 2011, among full-time wage and salary workers, union members had
median usual weekly earnings of $938, while those who were not union
members had median weekly earnings of $729. In addition to coverage by
a collective bargaining agreement, earnings differences reflect a
variety of influences, including variations in the distributions of
union members and nonunion employees by occupation, industry, firm
size, or geographic region. (See table 2.)
Union Membership by State
In 2011, 29 states and the District of Columbia had union membership
rates below that of the U.S. average, 11.8 percent, while 21 states
had higher rates. All states in the Middle Atlantic and Pacific
divisions reported union membership rates above the national average,
while all states in the East South Central and West South Central
divisions had rates below it. Union membership rates declined over the
year in 29 states and the District of Columbia, rose in 19 states, and
were unchanged in 2 states. (See table 5.)
Seven states had union membership rates below 5.0 percent in 2011,
with North Carolina having the lowest rate (2.9 percent). The next
lowest rates were recorded in South Carolina (3.4 percent), Georgia
(3.9 percent), Arkansas (4.2 percent), Louisiana (4.5 percent), and
Tennessee and Virginia (4.6 percent each). Three states had union
membership rates over 20.0 percent in 2011: New York (24.1 percent),
Alaska (22.1 percent), and Hawaii (21.5 percent).
State union membership levels depend on both the overall employment
levels and union membership rates. The largest numbers of union
members lived in California (2.4 million) and New York (1.9 million).
Over half of the 14.8 million union members in the U.S. lived in just
seven states (California, 2.4 million; New York, 1.9 million; Illinois,
0.9 million; Pennsylvania, 0.8 million; Michigan 0.7 million; and New
Jersey and Ohio, 0.6 million each), though these states accounted for
only about one-third of wage and salary employment nationally.
Texas had about one-fourth as many union members as New York, despite
having 2.3 million more wage and salary employees. North Carolina and
Hawaii had comparable numbers of union members (105,000 and 113,000,
respectively), though North Carolina's wage and salary employment
level (3.6 million) was nearly seven times that of Hawaii (525,000).
