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Is Unionization the Ticket to the Middle Class?

The Real Economic Effects of Labor Unions

LABOR, IMMIGRATION & EMPLOYEE BENEFITS DIVISION

U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

2008

http://www.uschamber.com/assets/labor/unionrhetoric_econeffects.pdf

Numerous studies have shown that unions are not the answer to increasing prosperity for American workers or the economy. Evidence demonstrates that the economy is much more vibrant and continues to grow in right-to-work states where unions are less prevalent as opposed to non-right to work states. Unions promise that they provide their members with higher overall wages, yet studies indicate that the higher wages actually reflect the higher cost of living in non-right-to-work states. There is strong evidence to suggest that unionization actually leads to lower job growth and an increase in migration away from those areas. Organized labor's claims that unionization is a ticket to the middle class cannot be squared with data showing that increased unionization decreases competitiveness and leads to slower job growth.