A new report from the Economic Policy Institute covering a wide range of effects that unions have on workers’ lives outside of work has found that states with high union-density have stronger democracies.
The report found that:
• Significantly fewer restrictive voting laws have been passed in the 17 highest-union-density states than in the middle 17 states (including D.C.) and the 17 lowest-union-density states.
• Over 70% of low-union-density states passed at least one voter suppression law between 2011 and 2019.
The report also found that the 17 U.S. states with the highest union densities:
• have state minimum wages that are on average 19% higher than the national average and 40% higher than those in low-union-density states
• have median annual incomes $6,000 higher than the national average
• have higher-than-average unemployment insurance recipiency rates (that is, a higher share of those who are unemployed actually receive unemployment insurance)
• have an uninsured (without health insurance) population 4.5 percentage points lower, on average, than that of low-union-density states
• have all elected to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, helping to eliminate the “coverage gap.”
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