In 2012, the number of workers belonging to a union was 734,000 in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that union members accounted for a series low of 13.5 percent of wage and salary workers in Pennsylvania in 2012 compared with 14.6 percent in 2011. At its peak in 1989, the first year for which comparable state data are available, the union membership rate for the Commonwealth was 20.9 percent. Despite the general decline in Pennsylvania’s union membership rate, it has remained above the U.S rate. Nationally, union members accounted for 11.3 percent of employed wage and salary workers in 2012, down from 11.8 percent in 2011. (See chart 1 .)

In addition to Pennsylvania’s 734,000 wage and salary workers who were union members in 2012, another 53,000 workers were represented by a union on their main job or were covered by an employee association or contract while not being union members themselves. (See table A.) Nationwide, about 14.4 million wage and salary workers were union members in 2012 and about 1.6 million workers reported no union affiliation but had jobs covered by a union contract.

In 2012, 19 states had union membership rates above the U.S. average of 11.3 percent, of which 9 had rates above 15.0 percent. (See table 1.) Of the nine states with the highest rates, three were located in the Northeast, one in the Midwest, and the remaining five bordered the Pacific Ocean. (See chart 2.) New York had the highest rate (23.2 percent), followed by Alaska (22.4 percent) and Hawaii (21.6 percent).

Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia had union membership rates below the national average in 2012. Eight of these states had union membership rates below 5.0 percent, with North Carolina having the lowest, 2.9 percent. The next lowest rates were recorded in Arkansas (3.2 percent) and South Carolina (3.3 percent). With the exception of Idaho, all eight states recording rates below 5.0 percent were located in the South.

About half of the 14.4 million union members in the United States lived in just seven states (California, 2.5 million; New York, 1.8 million; Illinois, 0.8 million; Pennsylvania, 0.7 million; and Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio, 0.6 million each), though these states accounted for only about one-third of wage and salary employment nationally.

State union membership levels depend on both the union membership rate and the employment level. For example, Pennsylvania had 135,000 more union members than Texas, despite having 5.1 million fewer wage and salary workers. Conversely, North Carolina and Hawaii had comparable numbers of union members (112,000 and 116,000, respectively), though North Carolina’s wage and salary employment level (3.8 million) was more than seven times that of Hawaii (537,000).

Technical Note

The estimates in this release are obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), which provides the basic information on the labor force, employment, and unemployment.  The survey is conducted monthly for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau from a scientifically selected national sample of about 60,000 households. The union membership and earnings data are tabulated from one-quarter of the CPS monthly sample and are limited to wage and salary workers. All self-employed workers are excluded.

Union membership data, particularly for levels, are not strictly comparable with data for earlier years because of the introduction of updated population controls used in the CPS. For technical documentation and related information, including reliability of the CPS estimates, see www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone:  (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service:  (800) 877-8339.

Definitions

The principal definitions used in this release are described briefly below.

Union members.  Members of a labor union or an employee association similar to a union.

Represented by unions.  Union members, as well as workers who have no union affiliation but whose jobs are covered by a union or an employee association contract.

Wage and salary workers.  Workers who receive wages, salaries, commissions, tips, payment in kind, or piece rates.  The group includes employees in both the private and public sectors, but, for the purposes of the union membership and earnings series, excludes all self-employed persons, regardless of whether or not their businesses are incorporated.