What Are the Consequences of Right-to-Work for Union Membership?

Murphy, Kevin J.

doi:10.1177/00197939221128753

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Scholars have used this perspective to demonstrate how collective mobilization substantially benefits workers, ranging from broad shifts of national income toward labor (Kristal 2010; Kristal and Cohen 2017) to specific economic outcomes such as reduced working poverty (Brady et al 2013). RTW presents a disincentivizing barrier to worker mobilization and tilts the balance of power back toward employers, undercutting union membership (Murphy 2023; Wallace, Vachon, and Hyde 2021) and reallocating firm revenues toward executive compensation (Chava et al 2020; Shin 2014). Using this theory, VanHeuvelen (2020) and Wallace and colleagues (2022) find RTW is associated with higher inequality, particularly in places where unions have traditionally been strong.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Right to Work and American Inequality

VanHeuvelen

2023

Am Sociol Rev

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Labor historians describe Right to Work (RTW) as among the most consequential pushbacks against the early twentieth-century ascent of labor unions. Yet research on the economic consequences of RTW remains mixed, with nearly all research centered empirically and theoretically on the time surrounding RTW passage. In the current study, I use 41 waves of longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics between 1968 and 2019 to empirically and theoretically extend the mechanisms that link RTW and economic outcomes. First, following the vast majority of research on RTW, I show the demobilizing effects for labor following RTW passage: mean wages decline, wage inequality increases, and the union premium is halved in the middle and lower portion of the wage distribution. Second, I move theoretical focus beyond the time surrounding law enactment, arguing for a second-order effect whereby RTW institutionalizes a logic of polarized economic distributions and low labor power. To test this mechanism, I develop a novel strategy of comparison across respondents who are differentially mobile across state boundaries. I find individuals who cross RTW contexts experience a unique decline in mean wages and increase in wage variance, but this distinct trend can be explained by state-level institutional variation across RTW and non-RTW states. Thus, RTW is not only consequential in the periods around its passage, but also in establishing a long-standing, high-inequality regime. Results reveal multiple mechanisms by which RTW contributes to the long-run processes of union decline and broadly shared inequality growth.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Right to Work and American Inequality

VanHeuvelen

2023

Am Sociol Rev

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Unions, technology and social class inequalities in the US, 1984–2019

Minardi

2024

Work, Employment and Society

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Earnings inequality in the US has risen in recent decades, with social class inequalities being a central component of this trend. While technological change and de-unionisation are considered key contributors to increased earnings dispersion, their specific influence on inequalities between employees’ social classes has received limited attention. This study theoretically and empirically investigates the relationship between technological change, de-unionisation and the earnings trajectories of occupational classes from 1984 to 2019. The empirical analysis uses industry-level time-series cross-section data and industry-level measures of union density, computer investments and class earnings. Descriptive analyses show earnings growth for non-manual classes and stagnant or declining earnings for manual ones. Results provide limited evidence that computerisation affected classes differently in the industries where introduced. In contrast, industry-level de-unionisation reinforced class inequalities in two ways. First, unionisation exhibited a stronger association with lower-class earnings. Second, manual workers were more prevalent in industries that experienced substantial declines in union density.

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What Are the Consequences of Right-to-Work for Union Membership?

Cited by 2 publications

References 43 publications

The Right to Work and American Inequality

The Right to Work and American Inequality

Unions, technology and social class inequalities in the US, 1984–2019

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