• The Economic Policy Institute report projects that tripling union density to 30% would increase the median worker’s pay by 14.5%, or $7,700 annually.
  • The shift would direct $1.2tn in additional income to workers each year and reverse one-third of the rise in inequality since 1979, the report states.
  • Union membership in the U.S. has fallen to 10% in 2025 from more than 30% in the 1950s, a decline the report attributes to aggressive corporate opposition and anti-union laws.
  • Public approval of unions stood at more than 68% in 2025, and more than 50 million workers reported they would join a union if able, according to the report.
  • The report recommends policy changes including the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and revoking right-to-work laws as pathways to increase density.
  • AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said the findings show that there is “no better way to fix what ails this country” than to expand union access.

Public approval of unions remains above 68% despite low membership

Union density in the United States has fallen sharply from its mid-20th-century peak, the report notes. In the 1950s, more than 30% of workers belonged to unions. By the 1980s, density had dropped to 22.2%. By 2025, it stood at 10%. The report attributes the long decline to aggressive union-busting campaigns by corporations and the passage of anti-union laws, including right-to-work legislation in many states.

The wage gains projected from restoring density to 30% would be substantial. A 14.5% raise for the median worker amounts to more than $7,700 annually, or nearly $270,000 over a 35-year career, the report states. The collective effect would shift $1.2tn to workers each year. The report also found that union wage premiums historically range from 15% to 20% and may be underestimated at current low density levels. Collective bargaining agreements lift wages for non-union workers as well.

The report quantified the impact on inequality. Restoring union density to 30% would reverse one-third of the rise in inequality that has occurred since 1979, a period during which worker productivity grew 2.7 times faster than pay.

“By making it harder and harder for workers to organize and bargain collectively, the rich seized more and more income and wealth, destroying the US middle class,” Robert Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor, writes in the report’s foreword. He added that the wealthiest 0.1% now own more than five times the combined wealth of the entire bottom half of the country.

The report estimates that more than 50 million U.S. workers would join a union if given the opportunity. Public approval of labor unions was above 68% in 2025.

Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, spoke about the pressures workers face. “I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with workers, no matter where you go – big city, small town – who basically are saying over and over again: ‘My rent keeps going up, my paycheck does not stretch as far as it used to, I walk into the grocery store and I ask myself, when did shit get so expensive?’ It is just a constant.”

The report offers a policy roadmap to increase union density. Key proposals include passing the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would strengthen collective bargaining rights, and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, which would guarantee bargaining rights for public-sector workers. The report also recommends requiring collective bargaining at companies where the CEO-to-worker pay ratio exceeds 100:1 and guaranteeing annual raises for newly unionized workers.

The report found that revoking right-to-work laws and restrictions on public-sector bargaining alone could raise union density from 9.9% to 14.4%.

Beyond wages, the report cites benefits to personal health and wellbeing. States with higher union densities tend to have greater public education investments, Medicaid expansions, and stronger voting rights protections.

“I think this report shows that there’s no better way to fix what ails this country than to make it possible for more workers to join a union,” Shuler said. “Unions truly do have the power to transform this country. They change lives. They change the course of families. They change entire communities.”