Do Unions Affect Labor's Share of Income: Evidence Using Panel Data

Financialization and Income Inequality in the United States, 1967–2010

“…The erosion of union strength since the late 1960s has arguably put downward pressure on wages, especially in industries dominated by collective bargaining; see Fichtenbaum's () evidence for labor's share in manufacturing. We would expect that lower rates of unionization have contributed to an increase in income inequality.…”

Understanding the global decline in the labor income share

“…Social and economic policies can provide an upward thrust on the labor income share, especially for unskilled workers. A decline in union coverage explains about 12% of the decline in labor's share of income between 1997 and 2006 in the US manufacturing sector [9]. If unions are able to effectively raise wages, then this can have a positive impact on the labor income share by increasing the gap between growth in real wages and labor productivity growth.…”

Belgium: Is strong social concertation a driver of upward social convergence?

“…Ferguson (1996), for example, finds that union decline in the US explains about 25 per cent of the dramatic increase in the wage-productivity gap. Fichtenbaum (2011) found that it might explain even a larger part of the decline in labour's share of income. The OECD (2012) shows that declines in labour shares have typically been smaller in sectors in which unions are more strongly represented.…”