Like everyone else, black workers’ union membership rates have declined in recent decades under the relentless assault from anti-union bosses and politicians. But black workers are more likely than other groups to be in unions, and they are seeing the benefits, a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows:
… during the period from 2010 to 2015, Black union workers on average earned $24.24 per hour, compared to $17.78 for their non-union counterparts, which translates to union workers earning about 36 percent more. Among Black women, union workers earned 37 percent more than non-union workers ($23.18 per hour, compared to $16.92 per hour). Black male union workers earned about 35 percent more than their non-union peers ($25.38 per hour, compared to $18.87 per hour). Only 11.4 percent of Black workers in low-wage occupations were represented by unions, but those that were made on average 39 percent more than non-union Black workers in low-wage occupations ($15.60 per hour, compared to $11.25 per hour).
That overstates the situation a little, because black union workers are more likely to be older and more educated, and tend to work in higher-wage industries and higher-wage states. That said:
Even after controlling for these fundamental differences between the union and non-union workforce, the union wage advantage remains practically large and statistically significant. For Black workers overall, unionization raises wages on average by 16.4 percent. For a Black worker earning the average non-union wage, this translates to about $2.92 per hour. For Black women, the regression-adjusted union wage advantage is 13.6 percent, and for Black men it is 19.3 percent. Black workers in low-wage occupations have a union wage advantage of 18.9 percent.
It’s another strong reminder of how unions fight inequality in the workplace and beyond.