Notes

Union Advantages for Women

Union representation brings wage setting into the open and helps ensure that employers set wages based on objective criteria. Research shows that labor unions tend to raise wages and improve benefits for all represented workers, especially those at the middle and bottom of the wage distribution, who are disproportionately women (Jones, Schmitt, and Woo 2014).

Among full-time workers aged 16 and older, women represented by labor unions earn an average of $212, or 30.9%, more per week than women in nonunion jobs. Six men of the same age range who are represented by unions earn, on average, $173 more per week than those without union representation. Union women experience a small gender wage gap. Women who are represented by unions earn 88.7 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts, a considerably higher earnings ratio than the ratio between all women and men in the United States.

Among the racial and ethnic groups, the difference in earnings between those with and without union representation is largest for Hispanics. Hispanic women represented by unions have median weekly earnings that are 42.1 % higher than those without union representation. Hispanic men with union representation have earnings that are 40.6% higher than their nonunion counterparts.

"Right to work" laws, which give employees the benefits of a union contract without paying dues, are associated with lower wages for all workers......especially women. In right to work states, wages are about 4.4% lower for full-time, year round female workers and 1.7% lower for full-time, year round male workers than in non-right-to-work states (Shierholz and Gould 2011).

The labor movement spearheaded many of the basic workplace protections we enjoy today. Unions play an important roll in collective bargaining for workers' rights, and in raising issues to the forefront of the national agenda. On many policy issues, labor unions have taken the lead in both national and state policy development.

Women's participation in unions is beneficial for several reasons. Unionized women have greater earnings and higher rates of health insurance coverage than that of nonunion women. Women's leadership is also critical to promoting issues of importance to women and families and raising these issues the forefront of unions' agendas. Women make up a large proportion of union members and have been closing the gender gap in membership.

Several obstacles often make it difficult for women to get involved in union leadership. Women experience difficulty making room for the time demands of leadership, especially with competing family obligations. Women have a fear of retribution by employers. Women serve at the top of union leadership, where they could serve as role models to other women activists; women express discomfort with public authority based on an understanding that this is not a female role; women are not aware of how union leadership may benefit their lives; and unions place inadequate emphasis on the priorities and concerns of women (Caiazza 2007).

Unions can highlight the importance of women's contributions by providing trainings on effective ways to mobilize women. Unions can encourage and support more women in leadership positions both nationally and locally. They can create and strengthen mentoring programs for women. They can provide dedicated space for women to voice their concerns. Also, address women's priorities by using imagery and language that reflects their experiences, and provide flexible options for involvement by finding creative times and places to meet and providing supports such as childcare (Caiazza 2007).