Union Membership Rates Continue Decline

Created on January 23, 2013

Union Membership Rates Continue Decline

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES (JPG, Color)

1935: 13.2% (year National Labor Relations Act signed into law)

Percentage of Private Sector Wage and Salary Workers

Percentage of All Wage and Salary Workers

Union Membership Percentages

Note: This chart displays union membership using two separate data sources: assorted union reports filed with the Department of Labor between 1930 and 1980 and data from the Current Population Survey. Data for 1982 have been interpolated.

Sources: Data for 1930–1980: U.S. Department of Labor, assorted labor union reports, and Haver Analytics; 1977–2012: Heritage Foundation calculations using data from Barry T. Hirsch and David A. Macpherson, “Union Membership and Coverage Database from the Current Population Survey,” Unionstats.com, http://www.unionstats.com (accessed January 23, 2013), and from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Percentage of Non-Agricultural Payroll Employment

CHART 1

IB 3839

heritage.org

Our Work

Backgrounder posted June 14, 2013 by Ariel Cohen, Ph.D. Russia’s Eurasian Union Could Endanger the Neighborhood and U.S. Interests
Backgrounder posted March 15, 2005 by Daniel J. Mitchell, Ph.D. The Impact of Government Spending on Economic Growth
Backgrounder posted June 12, 2013 by Nicolas Loris The Ethanol Mandate: Don’t Mend It, End It
Backgrounder posted April 25, 2012 by James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Steven P. Bucci, Ph.D., Jessica Zuckerman Fifty Terror Plots Foiled Since 9/11: The Homegrown Threat and the Long War on Terrorism
Backgrounder posted January 25, 1996 by Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D. Why Religion Matters: The Impact of Religious Practice on Social Stability
Backgrounder posted May 21, 2009 by James Sherk What Unions Do: How Labor Unions Affect Jobs and the Economy
Special Report posted August 28, 2007 by James Sherk Use and Abuse of the Family and Medical Leave Act: What Workers and Employers Say
Issue Brief posted June 13, 2013 by Paul Rosenzweig, David Inserra Government Cyber Failures Reveal Weaknesses of Regulatory Approach to Cybersecurity
Backgrounder posted March 1, 2006 by Tim Kane, Ph.D., Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D. The Real Problem with Immigration... and the Real Solution
Backgrounder posted February 12, 2013 by Romina Boccia How the United States’ High Debt Will Weaken the Economy and Hurt Americans

Blog Post on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Equality and the Redefinition of Marriage
Blog Post on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Tea Party Protests IRS at U.S. Capitol Rally
Blog Post on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Speaker Boehner: What’s “Free Market” About the Farm Bill?
Blog Post on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Judicial Activism: Trading the Stable Rule of Law for the Fickle Rule of Men
Blog Post on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 DeMint on Fox News: Immigration Bill Is “Going to Cost Americans Trillions of Dollars”
Blog Post on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 F-35 Survives
Blog Post on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Obama in Berlin: No Ronald Reagan
Blog Post on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Obamacare: Important Context on Next Year’s Premium Increases
Legal Memorandum posted June 19, 2013 by Paul Larkin Reasonably Construing the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to Avoid Overcriminalization
Blog Post on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 House Farm Bill Would Outspend Obama on Most Expensive Farm Program

Jun 20

Event on Thursday, June 20, 2013 America’s Way Back: Reclaiming Freedom, Tradition and Constitution
A book eventHow can America recover from economic stagnation, moral exhaustion, and looming bankruptcy? In America’s Way Back, American Conservative Union Vice Chairman Donald — Read more

Attend in Person Watch Online
Jun 21

Event on Friday, June 21, 2013 Lincoln Unbound: How an Ambitious Young Railsplitter Saved the American Dream – and How We Can Do It Again
In a mix of history and politics, author Rich Lowry traces Abraham Lincoln's ambitious climb from provincial upstart to political powerhouse and calls for a — Read more

Attend in Person Watch Online
Jun 25

Event on Tuesday, June 25, 2013 Central Europe – The Indispensable Region
Co-hosted byFor Central Europe, the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the beginning of an ongoing journey to full-fledged Euro-Atlantic integration. Although — Read more

Attend in Person Watch Online
Jun 26

Event on Wednesday, June 26, 2013 The Project for the Common Defense: Keeping America Strong for the Next Generation
Co-hosted by the American Enterprise Institute's Marilyn Ware Center for Security StudiesWhile tactical questions relating to the use of military force often divide Americans, a — Read more

Attend in Person Watch Online
Jun 26

Event on Wednesday, June 26, 2013 Taiwan, Trade and Trans-Pacific Partnership
Taiwan is a member of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation). Its economy would make it among the more developed in the now 12 country Trans-Pacific — Read more

Attend in Person Watch Online
Jun 27

Event on Thursday, June 27, 2013 The New Russian Sphere of Influence: Does Russia’s Eurasian Union Threaten U.S. Interests?
In 2011, the Presidents of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan signed an agreement to create a Eurasian Union and have it fully functioning by 2015. — Read more

Attend in Person Watch Online
Jun 28

Event on Friday, June 28, 2013 The Health of the U.S.-India Market Relationship
Co-hosted by the Alliance for U.S.-India BusinessEarlier this year, The Heritage Foundation released a report, “Unleashing the Market in US-India Economic Relations,” highlighting barriers to — Read more

Attend in Person Watch Online
Jul 08

Event on Monday, July 08, 2013 Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan’s Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today
Ronald Reagan, with his unbridled faith in American ingenuity, creativity, and know-how and his confidence in the free-enterprise system, believed the United States would “transcend” — Read more

Attend in Person Watch Online

Blog Post on 6/19/2013 8:54:57 PM Equality and the Redefinition of Marriage
Blog Post on 6/19/2013 7:00:05 PM Tea Party Protests IRS at U.S. Capitol Rally
Blog Post on 6/19/2013 6:30:18 PM Speaker Boehner: What’s “Free Market” About the Farm Bill?
Blog Post on 6/19/2013 6:00:46 PM Judicial Activism: Trading the Stable Rule of Law for the Fickle Rule of Men
Blog Post on 6/19/2013 5:18:17 PM DeMint on Fox News: Immigration Bill Is “Going to Cost Americans Trillions of Dollars”
Blog Post on 6/19/2013 4:36:39 PM F-35 Survives
Blog Post on 6/19/2013 4:02:41 PM Obama in Berlin: No Ronald Reagan
Blog Post on 6/19/2013 3:48:20 PM Obamacare: Important Context on Next Year’s Premium Increases
Blog Post on 6/19/2013 3:09:48 PM House Farm Bill Would Outspend Obama on Most Expensive Farm Program
Blog Post on 6/19/2013 1:27:50 PM WATCH: Discussion on the Cost of Amnesty

ABOUT The HERITAGE FOUNDATION

The Heritage Foundation is the nation’s most broadly supported public policy research institute, with hundreds of thousands of individual, foundation and corporate donors. Heritage, founded in February 1973, has a staff of 275 and an annual expense budget of $82.4 million.

Our mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. Read More

Our Initiatives

especially for

follow The heritage foundation

receive updates & newsletters

Receive updates from Heritage about current events and initiatives in your email inbox

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

Sign Up

Already Signed up?

Manage Your Subscriptions

http://www.heritage.org/multimedia/infographic/2013/01/union-membership-rates-continue-decline?fb=true#foot_anchor

© 2013, The Heritage Foundation
Conservative policy research since 1973