As Washington turns its attention to how to revive the flagging economy, a new study provides more data to back up a point you don’t hear very often in the commercial media — joining a union can provide a powerful economic stimulus for workers, especially if those workers are in groups whose pay and benefits have traditionally lagged behind those of white men.
The study in question is “Unionization Substantially Improves the Pay and Benefits of Women Workers”, just released by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Focusing on the experiences of working women from 2004 to 2007, it finds that joining a union provided them with economic benefits comparable to those that come with earning a college degree:
For the average woman, joining a union has a much larger effect on her probability of having health insurance (an 18.8 percentage-point increase) than finishing a four-year college degree would (an 8.4 percentage-point increase, compared to a woman with similar characteristics who has only a high school diploma). Similarly, unionization raises the probability of a woman having a pension by 24.7 percentage points, compared to only a 13.1 percent increase for completing a four-year college degree (relative to a high school degree).
For the average woman, a four-year college degree boosts wages by 52.6 percent, relative to a woman with similar characteristics who has only a high school degree. The comparably estimated union wage premium is 11.2 percent - over 20 percent of the full four-year college effect.
Economist John Schmitt, one of the study’s author’s, summarizes its findings thusly:
“For women, joining a union makes as much sense as going to college,” said John Schmitt, a Senior Economist at CEPR and the author of the study. “All else equal, joining a union raises a woman’s wage as much as a full-year of college, and a union raises the chances a woman has health insurance by more than earning a four-year college degree.”
All of which further establishes why the Employee Free Choice Act should be a key part of any economic recovery program — if we make it easier for working people to join together in unions, we give them a powerful tool to create their own economic stimulus.
