Union Density Report Projects Major Wage Gains if Membership Triples

The Economic Policy Institute released a study on July 15, 2026 estimating that raising U.S. union density from the 2025 level of 10 percent to 30 percent would give the median worker a 14.5 percent wage increase—about $7,700 per year—and shift roughly $1.2 trillion annually to employees. The analysis says such a rise would narrow the racial wage gap, boost health-insurance coverage, and reverse one-third of the increase in income inequality recorded since 1979. Historically, union-member wage premiums have ranged from 15 to 20 percent, a figure the report suggests may be understated because of today’s low union density.

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Union density peaked in the 1950s at more than 30 percent, fell to 22.2 percent in the 1980s, and reached 10 percent in 2025. The report links the decline to aggressive corporate anti-union campaigns and “right-to-work” statutes. Despite the drop, 68 percent of Americans expressed favorable views of unions in 2025, and over 50 million workers indicated they would join a union if able. The study outlines a policy roadmap that includes the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, and provisions to revoke “right-to-work” laws—measures projected to lift union density to 14.4 percent even without broader reforms.

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Beyond wages, the report associates higher union density with broader social benefits: states with stronger unions tend to invest more in public education, expand Medicaid, and protect voting rights. By narrowing the CEO-to-worker pay ratio (the study proposes mandatory bargaining where the ratio exceeds 100 to 1), the analysis argues that unions could curb the concentration of wealth that now places the richest 0.1 percent in control of more than five times the combined wealth of the bottom half of the population.

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AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler emphasized that rising living costs are driving workers to demand collective bargaining, while former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich argued that anti-union tactics have “destroyed the U.S. middle class.”

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• “By making it harder and harder for workers to organize and bargain collectively, the rich seized more and more income and wealth, destroying the US middle class,” — Robert Reich, former US secretary of labor

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• “Now the wealth of the richest Americans has exploded: the richest 0.1% own more than five times the combined wealth of the entire bottom half of the country.” — Robert Reich, former US secretary of labor

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• “I think this report shows that there’s no better way to fix what ails this country than to make it possible for more workers to join a union,” — Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO

The Guardian