Tripling union membership in the US would lead to a 14.5% raise for the median worker, shifting $1.2tn to workers annually and significantly narrowing racial wage gaps, according to a new report released on Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Historical decline in union density
The report notes that union membership rates across the workforce, also known as union density, were once three times as high as today. In the 1950s, union density exceeded 30% before it began to decline in the 1960s. By the 1980s, it dropped to 22.2%, and further declined to 10% in 2025. Despite this, public approval of labor unions has remained high, with more than 68% of Americans viewing unions favorably in 2025. Over 50 million US workers would join a union if they could.
The decline in union density comes amid aggressive union busting by corporations and new anti-union laws. Declines in union density have correlated with surges in wealth and income inequality. Since 1979, worker productivity has increased at a pace 2.7 times faster than pay increases.
Impact on inequality and wages
Robert Reich, former US secretary of labor, writes in the report's foreword: “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. 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.”
If union density tripled to 30%, the median worker would see a 14.5% raise amounting to $7,700 annually – over $1.2tn annually to workers – or nearly $270,000 over a 35-year career. It would also narrow the racial wage gap and increase health insurance coverage. These changes would reverse one-third of the rise in inequality since 1979, according to the report.
Wage premiums and broader benefits
Wage premiums from union membership are historically between 15% and 20%, and may be underestimated due to low union density. Collective bargaining agreements also increase wages for non-union workers. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said during a press conference: “I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with workers, no matter where you go – big city, small town – who basically are saying over and over again: ‘My rent keeps going up, my paycheck does not stretch as far as it used to, I walk into the grocery store and I ask myself, when did shit get so expensive?’ It is just a constant.”
Roadmap to increase union membership
The report offers a roadmap to increase union membership, including passing the Protecting the Right to Organize Act to strengthen collective bargaining rights and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act to guarantee collective bargaining rights for public sector workers. It also cites proposals for annual raises for newly unionized workers and requiring collective bargaining at companies where the CEO-to-worker pay ratio exceeds 100:1. Revoking “right to work” laws and restrictions on public sector bargaining alone would increase union density from 9.9% to 14.4%, according to the report.
Personal health and wellbeing are also cited as benefits, as states with high union densities have more public education investments, Medicaid expansions, and voting rights. Shuler concluded: “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. Unions truly do have the power to transform this country. They change lives. They change the course of families. They change entire communities.”
