The union membership rate--the percent of wage and salary workers who were members ofunions--was 10.1 percent in 2022, down from 10.3 percent in 2021, the U.S. Bureau ofLabor Statistics reported today. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.3 million in 2022, increased by 273,000, or 1.9 percent, from 2021. However, the total number of wage and salary workers grew by 5.3 million (mostly amongnonunion workers), or 3.9 percent. This disproportionately large increase in the numberof total wage and salary employment compared with the increase in the number of unionmembers led to a decrease in the union membership rate. The 2022 unionization rate (10.1 percent) is the lowest on record. In 1983, the first year where comparable uniondata are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent and there were 17.7 million union workers.
These data on union membership are collected as part of the Current Population Survey(CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 eligible households that obtains information on employment and unemployment among the nation's civilian noninstitutionalpopulation age 16 and over. For further information, see the Technical Note in this news release.
Highlights from the 2022 data:
--The union membership rate of public-sector workers (33.1 percent) continued to be more than five times higher than the rate of private-sector workers (6.0 percent).
--The highest unionization rates were among workers in protective service occupations (34.6 percent) and in education, training, and library occupations (33.7 percent).
--Men continued to have a higher union membership rate (10.5 percent) than women (9.6 percent). The gap between union membership rates for men and women has narrowed considerably since 1983 (the earliest year for which comparable data are available), when rates for men and women were 24.7 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively.
--Black workers remained more likely to be union members than White, Asian, or Hispanic workers.
--Nonunion workers had median weekly earnings that were 85 percent of earnings for workers who were union members ($1,029 versus $1,216). (The comparisons of earnings in this news release are on a broad level and do not control for many factors that can be important in explaining earnings differences.)
--Among states, Hawaii and New York had the highest union membership rates (21.9 percent and 20.7 percent, respectively), while South Carolina and North Carolina had the lowest (1.7 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively).
Industry and Occupation of Union Members
In 2022, 7.1 million employees in the public sector belonged to unions, about the same as in the private sector (7.2 million). (
Union membership was little changed over the year (+80,000) in the public sector, aftera decline the prior year (-191,000). The public-sector union membership rate continuedto decline in 2022; the rate went down by 0.8 percentage point to 33.1 percent. In 2022,the union membership rate continued to be highest in local government (38.8 percent), which employs many workers in heavily unionized occupations, such as police officers, firefighters, and teachers.
The number of union workers employed in the private sector increased by 193,000 to 7.2million over the year. The private-sector unionization rate edged down by 0.1 percentagepoint in 2022 to 6.0 percent. Industries with high unionization rates included utilities(19.6 percent), motion pictures and sound recording industries (17.3 percent), andtransportation and warehousing (14.5 percent). Low unionization rates occurred in insurance (1.2 percent), finance (1.3 percent), professional and technical services (1.3 percent), and food services and drinking places (1.4 percent).
Among occupational groups, the highest unionization rates in 2022 were in protective service occupations (34.6 percent) and in education, training, and library occupations (33.7 percent). Unionization rates were lowest in sales and related occupations (3.0 percent); computer and mathematical occupations (3.3 percent); food preparation andserving related occupations (3.6 percent); and management occupations (3.8 percent).
Selected Characteristics of Union Members
In 2022, the unionization rate for women decreased by 0.3 percentage point over the yearto 9.6 percent while the rate for men was little changed at 10.5 percent. The number ofwomen who were union members, at 6.5 million, changed little over the year, while the number of men who were union members increased by 248,000 to 7.8 million.
Among major race and ethnicity groups, Black workers continued to have a higher unionmembership rate in 2022 (11.6 percent) than White workers (10.0 percent), Asian workers(8.3 percent), and Hispanic workers (8.8 percent). The union membership rate declined by0.3 percentage point for White workers, while it increased by 0.6 percentage point for Asian workers. The union membership rates for Black workers and Hispanic workers werelittle different from 2021.
By age, workers ages 45 to 54 had the highest union membership rate in 2022, at 12.6 percent. Younger workers--those ages 16 to 24--had the lowest union membership rate, at4.4 percent.
In 2022, the union membership rate for full-time workers (11.0 percent) was double than that for part-time workers (5.5 percent).
Union Representation
In 2022, 16.0 million wage and salary workers were represented by a union, up slightly(+200,000) from 2021. The percentage of workers represented by a union was 11.3 percentin 2022, down by 0.3 percentage point from a year ago. Workers represented by a union include both union members (14.3 million) and workers who report no union affiliation but whose jobs are covered by a union contract (1.7 million).
Earnings
Among full-time wage and salary workers, union members had median usual weekly earningsof $1,216 in 2022, while nonunion workers had median weekly earnings of $1,029. Inaddition to coverage by a collective bargaining agreement, these earnings differencesreflect a variety of influences, including variations in the distributions of union members and nonunion employees by occupation, industry, age, firm size, or geographicregion.
Union Membership by State
In 2022, 30 states and the District of Columbia had union membership rates below thatof the U.S. average, 10.1 percent, while 19 states had rates above it and 1 state (NewHampshire) had the same rate. All states in both the East South Central and West SouthCentral divisions had union membership rates below the national average, while allstates in both the Middle Atlantic and Pacific divisions had rates above it.
Eleven states had union membership rates below 5.0 percent in 2022. South Carolina hadthe lowest rate (1.7 percent), followed by North Carolina (2.8 percent) and South Dakota (3.1 percent). Two states had union membership rates over 20.0 percent in 2022:Hawaii (21.9 percent) and New York (20.7 percent).
In 2022, 30 percent of the 14.3 million union members lived in just two states (California at 2.6 million and New York at 1.7 million). However, these states accounted for about 17 percent of wage and salary employment nationally.
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