6 Policies Proved To Increase Union Membership

Although half of all workers in the United States would like to join unions, just 6 percent of private sector workers are union members.¹ To counteract the forces that suppress union membership, policy must actively promote unions and collective bargaining.

Many factors—including union organizing efforts, economic conditions, and individual characteristics and beliefs—affect whether workers join unions, but the policy environment is critical.² Research from the United States and around the world shows that six policy strategies meaningfully boost union membership:

• Strengthening workplace organizing and bargaining, such as limits on union busting
• Improving worker access, including providing unions with workers’ contact information
• Instituting sectoral bargaining, so unions can negotiate standards across an entire industry
• Adopting the Ghent system, where unions help deliver governmental benefits
• Supporting dues paying, including through repeal of right-to-work laws
• Providing funding for union activities, such as unemployment insurance for striking workers

These policies work best when pursued together because workers join unions for different reasons and through different pathways. Workers are more likely to join when unions deliver higher wages, pro-union norms and solidarity are strong, and workers have frequent contact with unions inside and outside the workplace—and the incentives encourage them to do so. Indeed, research shows that strong workplace organizing, sectoral bargaining, and the Ghent system are mutually reinforcing, creating overlapping structures and inducements that encourage membership.³ This trio of policies are likely the most important for increasing union membership and thus should be prioritized, but all six matter, and progress will require a combination of strategies.

Ultimately, federal reforms are needed to fully enact these policies, but states have some room to move forward. For workers who are not covered by federal labor law, such as public sector workers and independent contractors, states have significant freedom. But for workers covered by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), states can enact only some of the policies, such as funding and the Ghent system.⁴

Labor unions and their allies are pursuing all six policy strategies to varying degrees. The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act—the primary federal legislation that aims to strengthen unions—focuses on two: improving workplace organizing and bargaining and supporting dues paying.⁵ Promoting access rights, sectoral bargaining, the Ghent system, and funding have received more attention at the state level.⁶

As powerful as these six strategies are, none on its own is enough to overcome the structural disadvantages unions face. But together, this suite of policies can create a broadly supportive environment for unions to thrive.

The workplace is where people think most about work issues, where the culture of unionism often takes hold, where most collective bargaining in the United States occurs, and—if unions are successful—where people can experience higher wages, better benefits, and improved working conditions, as well as representation and voice.⁷ Yet, the NLRA stifles workplace organizing and bargaining: It subjects workers to rampant union busting by employers as workers seek to be recognized as a union and then forces them to endure an arduous negotiation process that too often fails to achieve a contract.⁸

Policy elements that help workers to successfully form a union at their worksite and secure a collective bargaining agreement, including limits on employer opposition, a favorable recognition process, and strong bargaining rights, have been found to increase union membership.⁹ More generally, research consistently finds that the presence of a strong union at the workplace significantly increases the likelihood a worker joins.¹⁰ In other words, successful organizing and collective bargaining at the worksite level is a bedrock of union membership, and policies that support such efforts boost membership.

The proposed federal PRO Act contains numerous elements to facilitate the process of workers forming a union and bargaining at their workplace, including promoting free and fair union elections, holding employers accountable for illegal union-busting activity, enhancing strike rights, and requiring mediation and arbitration to help workers secure first contracts.¹¹ Several states have strengthened workplace representation and bargaining rights for public sector workers.¹²

Unions that can communicate freely with workers have more opportunities to recruit and retain members. As a result, the rights of unions to access workers—especially at the workplace—facilitates recruitment and retention.¹³ Unfortunately, the NLRA makes it difficult for unions to connect with workers, particularly at their workplace: It requires unions to demonstrate the support of at least 30 percent of workers before they gain contact information and then go through the arduous process of winning a collective bargaining agreement to secure workplace access.¹⁴

Policymakers can provide unions with access to workers in a variety of ways, such as through the provision of emails and other contact information, rights to enter workplaces, a space at their worksite for workers to discuss workplace issues and problems free from managers’ interference or supervision,¹⁵ and the creation of works councils—a workplace committee that workers run.

California and Massachusetts provide unions with an easier path to access the contact information for all rideshare drivers in the sector.¹⁶ A number of states, including Maryland and New Jersey, allow unionized workers to meet with new public sector hires in the workplace and educate them on the benefits of union membership as well as ensure unions regularly receive updated contact lists for workers.¹⁷

Sectoral bargaining is a type of collective bargaining that creates minimum standards for all workers in an industry or occupation. The NLRA makes sectoral bargaining very difficult for workers to achieve.¹⁸

While it is more widely known that sectoral bargaining increases the number of workers covered by a union contract, it also increases union membership because it creates new organizing opportunities, reduces incentives for employers to fight worker efforts to unionize, and ensures that high-paying unionized firms can compete on a level playing field.¹⁹ Research finds that sectoral bargaining has a “significant, positive and robust impact on union growth.”²⁰ This is especially true for workers in jobs that are hard to organize under worksite-level bargaining, such as in industries that are heavily contracted out or “fissured.”²¹ Indeed, modeling by the Center for American Progress suggests that sectoral bargaining could help significantly increase membership and coverage.²²

Massachusetts and California have created sectoral bargaining systems for rideshare drivers.²³

Create Ghent-like structures

The Ghent system—an arrangement in several countries whereby unions help deliver government-supported unemployment insurance—provides workers with an incentive to join unions and allows unions to have regular access to workers outside the workplace.²⁴ The Ghent system has been shown to significantly increase union membership, with some studies estimating it provides more than a 20 percentage-point boost in density.²⁵

Though the United States does not have the Ghent system, it does have a number of Ghent-like structures where unions deliver or help people access governmental benefits.²⁶ In Maine, unions and other worker organizations receive public funding to help workers access unemployment and workforce training benefits,²⁷ while in Oregon unions partner with the state to help public sector workers navigate their health and retirement benefit plans.²⁸ Numerous states partner with unions to lead training programs, and several cities partner with unions and worker organizations to boost compliance with employment laws.²⁹

The structure and ease of membership dues payment influence whether workers join unions. Policies that allow unions to charge fees to workers covered by a contract have been shown to encourage workers to pay and join unions.³⁰ In contrast, union membership is reduced when so-called right-to-work laws make it illegal for workers and employers to negotiate a contract requiring everyone at a worksite covered by a union contract to pay their fair share of the costs of administering it.³¹

Michigan repealed its right-to-work law in 2023, and the PRO Act would stop all state right-to-work laws.³² The NLRA allows unions and employers to negotiate over the use of payroll for dues, and most states—but not all—allow payroll deductions for public sector unions.³³ Some states allow private sector workers to use payroll deductions to fund a range of organizations.³⁴

Policies that reduce the costs of paying union dues or participating in union activities increase membership. For example, tax policies providing workers with a subsidy for a percentage of union dues have been shown to boost union density.³⁵ Similarly, policies that provide unemployment benefits for striking workers—reducing the cost of lost wages for workers striking to gain union recognition or achieve a better contract—increase labor’s organizational capacity.³⁶

The proposed federal Tax Fairness for Workers Act would restore the ability of workers to deduct union dues on their income taxes, which was removed by the first Trump administration’s 2017 tax law.³⁷ Maryland, New York, Delaware, and Pennsylvania allow a state tax deduction for union dues, and California has a tax credit for union dues.³⁸

Washington, Oregon, New York, and New Jersey provide unemployment insurance benefits to striking workers, and Illinois protects picketing workers from legal liability for unintentional property damage.³⁹

Each of these six policy strategies has been proved to increase union membership. Other policies may also increase union membership, but those featured in this report have been extensively studied. The policies should be pursued together, providing multiple reasons and ways for workers to join unions.

Some think a renewed emphasis on union organizing is the only path to increasing membership and question the importance of policy.⁴⁰ While increased union organizing may be necessary, it is clearly insufficient.⁴¹ There are few, if any, recent cases of labor unions being able to increase membership over any significant period when a country’s policy is unfavorable. But in contrast, with good policies, unions have attained very high membership levels in many different environments.⁴²

Policy reforms are needed to encourage union membership not just because current laws make it far too difficult for workers to form unions and bargain collectively but also to counteract the larger forces that suppress union membership—the challenge of providing a public good and corporate opposition.⁴³

Because unions provide a public good of higher wages, better benefits, and improved working conditions across segments of the economy, this creates a free-rider problem that can be limited but never fully solved.⁴⁴ There will always be some nonunion workers benefiting from the higher standards that unions create, leading to reduced membership. Similarly, not every corporate action to restrict unions can legally be stopped. Some types of antiunion employer pressure on workers can be limited, but corporations have significant power and will find ways to oppose unions in an effort to keep the cost of wages down. As a result, countervailing policies that support union membership are needed.

In summary, unions face a number of structural disadvantages to achieving adequate membership and require a favorable policy environment that provides workers with multiple reasons to join unions in order to thrive. The six policies discussed in this report can do the job.