The data shows Illinois gets it right on labor policy

The delta between what policymakers promise versus what they actually deliver is rarely more evident than it is on labor policy.

No successful politician has ever campaigned on lowering workers’ wages, less homeownership, and more welfare reliance.

Yet, data continues to link state labor policy to significant differences in outcomes across these categories. More recently, these distinctions have also posed a sharp conflict with public opinion. This should matter to policymakers, especially during an election year.

According to recent Gallup surveys, labor unions are enjoying their highest public approval in generations — with majority support among both Republicans and Democrats. A record-high number of Americans say they want these institutions to have more influence.

America is currently divided in half, between so-called “right-to-work” states and states like Illinois that have protected collective bargaining rights. The difference between them is that “right-to-work” states allow workers to receive services from unions for free without paying for them. This starves unions of resources they would otherwise have to negotiate higher wages and better benefits or to organize new workers.

The data, which is featured in the annual “State of the Unions” research produced jointly by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, tells the story of how these choices impact economic reality for working families.

Last year, U.S. unions added more members than at any time since 2008. This reflects both public opinion and the job quality reckoning underway in the nation’s workforce. It suggests workers are turning to collective bargaining as a way to help wages keep pace with rising costs.

But when you peel back the data, big distinctions emerge.

While both “right-to-work” and collective bargaining states added members, unions added three times more members in collective bargaining states. In collective bargaining states, 14% of workers are in a union compared to just 5% in their right-to-work counterparts.

When it comes to wages and wage growth, a similar story emerges. Wages in “right-to-work” states are 8% lower on average — even after adjusting for differences in cost of living. And that gap is widening, with wages in states that protect collective bargaining rights growing 3% faster since 2019. And the higher wages affect union and nonunion workers alike.

These higher wages have been invaluable for workers dealing with an affordability crisis from the checkout counter to the pump to their rents and mortgages.

Closer to home, these trends hold when you compare Illinois workers to peers in the neighboring “right-to-work” Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Wisconsin. Cost-of-living-adjusted earnings are an average of 9% higher for Illinois workers.

Not surprisingly, with higher incomes comes greater social stability. The data shows union members are more likely to be married, more likely to own their homes, and significantly less likely to rely on taxpayer-funded assistance programs like Medicaid and SNAP food stamps.

Often lost in the political debates over labor policy is the question of “who.” In Illinois, one-in-five military veterans and one in five Black workers are union members. Our state’s unions have organized more members in the last three years, than in the previous seven years combined — in education, public safety, healthcare, the skilled trades, and many other occupations that drive our economy.

The growth of unions and wages in Illinois can be traced to the choice to align state labor policy with will and aspirations of the public. Voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2022 to guarantee a right to collective bargaining and permanent ban so-called “right-to-work” laws.

Many of Illinois’ neighbors have made different choices. The reality is that those choices are not only out of step with public opinion, but they’ve also made it harder for too many American workers to keep pace with rising costs.

Frank Manzo IV is an economist at the nonpartisan Illinois Economic Policy Institute.