Union density increase to 1950s levels would raise median pay 14.5%, EPI finds

Report outlines policy changes to boost collective bargaining coverage

The wage premium and inequality gap

A worker earning the median wage would see an annual raise of $7,700 — roughly $1.2tn flowing to workers in total each year — if union density returned to 30%, the EPI report found. Over a 35-year career, the report estimates, that would amount to nearly $270,000 in additional earnings.

The report states that union membership typically carries a wage premium of 15% to 20%, a figure the authors said may be an underestimate because low union density weakens the benchmark. It also notes that collective bargaining agreements tend to lift wages for non-union workers in the same industries.

Robert Reich, former US secretary of labor, wrote in the report’s foreword that “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.” He added that “the wealth of the richest Americans has exploded: the richest 0.1% own more than five times the combined wealth of the entire bottom half of the country.”

How union density has changed

Union density exceeded 30% in the 1950s before beginning a long decline in the 1960s. It fell to 22.2% by the 1980s and reached 10% in 2025, according to the report. The EPI attributes the trend to corporate opposition to unions and laws that restrict organizing.

Since 1979, worker productivity has grown 2.7 times faster than pay increases for workers. The report states that the decline in union density has correlated with surges in wealth and income inequality.

Tripling union density would reverse about one-third of the rise in inequality since 1979 and narrow the racial wage gap while increasing health insurance coverage, according to the report.

Policy proposals

The report recommends 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 collective bargaining rights for public sector workers. It also cites proposals to guarantee annual raises for newly unionized workers and require collective bargaining at companies where the CEO-to-worker pay ratio exceeds 100:1.

Revoking “right to work” laws and restrictions on public sector bargaining would alone increase union density from 9.9% to 14.4%, according to the report.

The report also notes that states with high union densities tend to have more public education investment, Medicaid expansions, and voting rights protections.

Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the US, said during a press conference Wednesday that the report shows “there’s no better way to fix what ails this country than to make it possible for more workers to join a union.” She added that “unions truly do have the power to transform this country. They change lives. They change the course of families. They change entire communities.”