What do Right-to-Work Laws do to Unions? Evidence from Six Recently-Enacted RTW Laws

Kyung-nok Chun ()

Journal of Labor Research, 2023, vol. 44, issue 1, No 4, 94-144

Abstract: Abstract Right-to-work (RTW) laws prohibit union security agreements in many U.S. states, and are frequently portrayed as a mortal threat to unionism in the country. This paper sheds new light on the old debate surrounding the effects of RTW legislation by evaluating their impacts in six U.S. states that adopted such laws in the 21st century. Using a mix of panel data methods, I find evidence that in the private sector, RTW laws decrease union coverage by more than 10 percent, all else equal. I find RTW laws to have only a small and insignificant effect on free-riding behavior as measured by the share of unionized workers who are nonmembers. Union formation through NLRB-administered elections do not appear to be adversely affected. RTW laws are also found to increase union wages and their premium over non-union wages, which plausibly reflect changes in union bargaining behavior. In the public sector, RTW laws are associated with declines in union coverage but may be confounded by other state-level policies aimed at weakening public sector unions. Separately evaluating the effects of the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME, which effectively made the entire U.S. public sector right-to-work, I find no evidence of any impact on union-related outcomes. Some of these findings are quite novel, and challenge conventional assumptions about how RTW laws impact unions.

Keywords: Right-to-work; Labor unions; Union wage gap (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J53 K31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s12122-023-09341-w

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