An Anatomy of Public Sector Unions

Barry Hirsch ()

No 7313, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Public sector unionism grew rapidly during the late 1960s and early 1970s following the passage of state collective bargaining laws. During the last thirty years, public sector membership has grown at roughly the same rate as the overall workforce. This paper provides a descriptive overview of union membership growth and economy-wide employment shares in the U.S. federal (non-postal), Postal Service, state, and local government sectors. More limited evidence is provided on changes in relative public/private and union/nonunion wages. Observations are provided on the current debates regarding public/private pay and the role of public sector unions.

Keywords: public sector pay; public sector unions; union membership; employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J45 J5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2013-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published in: Michael Green and Samuel Estreicher (eds.), The Challenge for Collective Bargaining: Proceedings of the NYU 65th Annual Conference on Labor, LexisNexis, 2013

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