Some highlights from the 2008 data are:
- Government workers were nearly five times more likely to belong to a union than were private sector employees.
- Workers in education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionization rate at 38.7 percent.
- Black workers were more likely to be union members than were white, Asian, or Hispanic workers.
- Among states, New York had the highest union membership rate (24.9 percent) and North Carolina had the lowest rate (3.5 percent).
Membership by Industry and Occupation
The union membership rate for public sector workers (36.8 percent)was substantially higher than the rate for private industry workers
(7.6 percent). Within the public sector, local government workers had the highest union membership rate, 42.2 percent. This group includes many workers in several heavily unionized occupations, such as teachers, police officers, and fire fighters. Private sector industries with high unionization rates include transportation and utilities (22.2 percent), telecommunications (19.3 percent), and construction (15.6 percent). In 2008, unionization rates were relatively low in financial activities (1.8 percent) and professional and business services (2.1 percent).
Among occupational groups, education, training, and library occupations (38.7 percent) and protective service occupations (35.4 percent)
had the highest unionization rates in 2008. Sales and related occupations (3.3 percent) and farming, fishing, and forestry occupations
(4.3 percent) had the lowest unionization rates.
Demographic Characteristics of Union Members
The union membership rate was higher for men (13.4 percent) than for women (11.4 percent) in 2008. The gap between their rates has narrowed considerably since 1983, when the rate for men was about 10 percentage points higher than the rate for women. Between 1983 and 2008, the union membership rate for men declined by 11.3 percentage points, while the rate for women declined by 3.2 percentage points.
In 2008, black workers were more likely to be union members (14.5 percent) than workers who were white (12.2 percent), Asian (10.6 percent), or Hispanic (10.6 percent). Black men had the highest union membership rate (15.9 percent), while Asian men had the lowest rate (9.6 percent).
By age, union membership rates were highest among workers 55 to 64 years old (16.6 percent) and 45 to 54 years old (16.0 percent). The lowest union membership rates occurred among those ages 16 to 24 (5.0 percent). Full-time workers were about twice as likely as part-time workers to be union members, 13.7 compared with 6.7 percent.
Union Representation of Nonmembers
About 1.7 million wage and salary workers were represented by a union on their main job in 2008, while not being union members themselves. About half of these workers were employed in government.
Earnings
In 2008, among full-time wage and salary workers, union members had median usual weekly earnings of $886 while those who were not represented by unions had median weekly earnings of $691. The difference reflects a variety of influences in addition to coverage by a collective bargaining agreement, including variations in the distributions of union members and nonunion employees by occupation, industry, firm size, or geographic region.
Union Membership by State
In 2008, 29 states and the District of Columbia had union membership rates below that of the U.S. average, 12.4 percent, while 20 states had higher rates, and 1 state had the same rate. All states in the East North Central, Middle Atlantic, and Pacific divisions reported union membership rates at or above the national average, and all states in the East South Central and West South Central divisions had rates below it. Union membership rates rose over the year in 26 states and the District of Columbia, declined in 20 states, and were unchanged in 4 states.
Six states had union membership rates below 5.0 percent in 2008, with North Carolina having the lowest rate (3.5 percent). The next lowest rates were recorded in Georgia (3.7 percent), South Carolina (3.9 percent), Virginia (4.1 percent), Texas (4.5 percent), and Louisiana (4.6 percent). Three states had union membership rates over 20.0 percent in 2008 - New York (24.9 percent), Hawaii (24.3 percent), and Alaska (23.5 percent).
The largest numbers of union members lived in California (2.7 million) and New York (2.0 million). About half (8.0 million) of the 16.1 million union members in the U.S. lived in just 6 states (California, 2.7 million; New York, 2.0 million; Illinois, 0.9 million; Pennsylvania, 0.8 million; Michigan, 0.8 million; and Ohio, 0.7 million), though these states accounted for only one-third of wage and salary employment nationally.
State union membership levels depend on both the employment level and union membership rate. Texas, with 449,000 union members in 2008, had less than one-quarter as many union members as New York, despite having over 1.8 million more wage and salary employees. Similarly, North Carolina and Hawaii had a comparable number of union members (132,000 and 136,000, respectively), though North Carolina's wage and salary employment level, at 3.8 million, was almost seven times that of Hawaii at 562,000.
