A profile of union workers in state and local government

Key facts about the sector for followers of Janus v. AFSCME Council 31

Report • By Julia Wolfe and John Schmitt • June 7, 2018

https://www.epi.org/publication/a-profile-of-union-workers-in-state-and-local-government-key-facts-about-the-sector-for-followers-of-janus-v-afscme-council-31/

Summary

The forthcoming Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 will likely have profound implications for the 17.3 million workers in state and local government across the country. The case involves a First Amendment challenge to state laws that allow public-sector unions to require state and local government workers who are not union members, but who are represented by a union, to pay “fair share” or “agency” fees for the benefits they receive from union representation. By stripping unions of their ability to collect fair share fees, a decision for the plaintiffs in Janus would hurt all state and local government workers by impeding their ability to organize and bargain collectively.1 This report provides a profile of the 6.8 million of these workers who are covered by union contracts, and it reviews some key long-term trends in unionization in state and local governments.2

As this report shows:

• A majority (58 percent) of union workers (workers covered by a collective bargaining contract) in state and local government are women.
• African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders make up one-third of unionized state and local government workers.
• While teachers constitute the single largest subgroup of union workers in state and local government, union workers also include those serving the public as administrators, social workers, police officers, firefighters, and other professionals.
• On average, union workers in state and local government have substantially more formal education than workers in the private sector. Over 60 percent of state and local government union workers have a four-year college degree or more education, compared with one-third in the private sector.

Data on union membership trends shed light on why a Supreme Court decision affecting the unionized state and local government workforce has broad implications. State and local government workers constitute the largest subgroup (42.1 percent) of all union members in the country. Over a third (36.1 percent) of state and local government workers belong to a union, compared with just 6.5 percent of workers in the private sector nationally. This 36.1 percent share is down from the roughly 38- to 40-percent share sustained throughout the 1990s and 2000s. In the 2010s, state and local government worker union membership has been slowly declining as attacks on public-sector unions have ramped up.3

Introduction: Union membership in the public and private sectors, 1949 to today

As of 2017, over one-third (36.1 percent) of state and local government workers are union members, compared with only 6.5 percent of private-sector workers (Figure A).4 We are able to make this comparison because data distinguishing state and local government workers from the entire public-sector workforce became available in 1989. As the figure shows, state and local government union membership rates held steady throughout the 1990s and throughout most of the 2000s, but have since started to decline. By contrast, in the private sector, union membership rates have been falling almost continuously since the mid-1950s.

Historically, the union membership rates in the overall public and private sectors looked very different than they do today. In 1949, just 12.1 percent of all public-sector workers were union members, while over one-third (34.7 percent) of private-sector workers were union members. Union membership in the public sector expanded rapidly from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, dipped a little by the early 1980s, and remained fairly steady over nearly the next three decades. However, in recent years the public-sector union membership rate has experienced a slow decline.

The state and local government workforce of 17.3 million in 2017 is larger than the federal government workforce (3.7 million) and has a higher union membership rate (36.1 percent) than the federal government (26.6 percent). Thus, state and local government employees account for the vast majority (86.5 percent) of public-sector union members. Figure B tracks the public sector’s increasing share of union membership since 1949.

The number of total public-sector union members (including federal workers) has increased tenfold since 1949 and, as of 2017, stands at 7.2 million workers (Figure C). Most of this growth occurred between the early 1960s and mid-1970s; in recent years the number of public-sector union members has declined slightly. Meanwhile, despite greatly expanded total private-sector employment, there are just over half as many private-sector union members today as there were in 1949. In 2017, there were almost as many union members in the total public (local, state, and federal) sectors (7.2 million) as in the private sector (7.6 million).

FIGURE A

State/local government has had the highest union membership rate (36.1%) for decadesUnion membership rate, by sector, 1949–2017

	All	Private	Public	State and local government	Federal government
1949	31.8%	34.7%	12.1%
1950	31.9%	34.9%	12.1%
1950	31.6%	34.6%	12.3%
1951	31.7%	34.7%	12.0%
1952	32.0%	35.2%	12.0%
1953	32.5%	35.7%	11.6%
1954	32.3%	35.6%	11.4%
1955	31.8%	35.1%	11.4%
1956	31.4%	34.7%	11.1%
1957	31.2%	34.7%	10.7%
1958	30.3%	33.9%	10.6%
1959	29.0%	32.3%	10.5%
1960	28.6%	31.9%	10.8%
1961	28.5%	31.9%	10.6%
1962	30.4%	31.6%	24.3%
1963	30.2%	31.2%	25.1%
1964	30.2%	31.0%	26.0%
1965	30.1%	30.8%	26.1%
1966	29.6%	30.3%	26.1%
1967	29.9%	30.5%	27.0%
1968	29.5%	29.9%	27.3%
1969	28.7%	29.0%	26.9%
1970	29.6%	29.1%	32.0%
1971	29.1%	28.2%	33.0%
1972	28.8%	27.3%	35.4%
1973	28.5%	26.6%	37.0%
1974	28.3%	26.2%	38.0%
1975	28.9%	26.3%	39.6%
1976	27.9%	25.1%	40.2%
1977	26.2%	23.6%	38.1%
1978	25.1%	22.5%	36.7%
1979	24.5%	22.0%	36.4%
1980	23.2%	20.6%	35.1%
1981	22.6%	19.9%	35.4%
1982	21.9%	19.0%	35.2%
1983	20.7%	17.8%	34.4%
1984	18.8%	15.5%	35.8%
1985	18.0%	14.6%	35.8%
1986	17.5%	14.0%	36.0%
1987	17.0%	13.4%	36.0%
1988	16.8%	12.9%	36.7%
1989	16.4%	12.3%	36.7%	38.3%	30.4%
1990	16.0%	11.8%	36.4%	37.7%	30.7%
1991	16.0%	11.7%	36.7%	38.2%	30.3%
1992	15.7%	11.3%	36.5%	37.7%	30.8%
1993	15.7%	11.0%	37.4%	39.1%	30.2%
1994	15.5%	10.8%	38.7%	39.9%	33.6%
1995	14.9%	10.3%	37.7%	39.0%	32.4%
1996	14.5%	10.0%	37.6%	39.0%	31.7%
1997	14.1%	9.7%	37.2%	38.3%	32.0%
1998	13.9%	9.5%	37.5%	38.3%	33.8%
1999	13.9%	9.4%	37.3%	38.3%	32.1%
2000	13.4%	9.0%	37.4%	38.5%	32.0%
2001	13.5%	9.0%	37.4%	38.5%	31.7%
2002	13.3%	8.6%	37.8%	38.9%	32.5%
2003	12.9%	8.2%	37.2%	38.4%	30.9%
2004	12.5%	7.9%	36.4%	37.7%	29.9%
2005	12.5%	7.8%	36.5%	38.2%	27.8%
2006	12.0%	7.4%	36.2%	37.7%	28.4%
2007	12.1%	7.5%	35.9%	37.7%	26.8%
2008	12.4%	7.6%	36.8%	38.5%	28.1%
2009	12.3%	7.2%	37.4%	39.3%	28.0%
2010	11.9%	6.9%	36.2%	38.2%	26.8%
2011	11.8%	6.9%	37.0%	38.8%	28.1%
2012	11.2%	6.6%	35.9%	37.8%	26.9%
2013	11.2%	6.7%	35.3%	37.1%	26.5%
2014	11.1%	6.6%	35.7%	37.4%	27.5%
2015	11.1%	6.7%	35.2%	36.8%	27.3%
2016	10.7%	6.4%	34.4%	35.9%	27.4%
2017	10.7%	6.5%	34.4%	36.1%	26.6%

ChartData

Notes: Data allowing for a disaggregation of the public sector into federal government and state and local government became available in 1989. The sharp increase in the public-sector union membership rate between 1961 and 1962 can be attributed to the passage of Executive Order 10988, which gave federal employees the right to collectively bargain (see “50th Anniversary: Executive Order 10988,” Federal Labor Relations Authority, 2012).

Source: EPI analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group microdata and Labor Research Association data

FIGURE B

Public-sector workers are an increasing share of all union membersShare of total union membership accounted for by the private and public sectors, 1949–2017

	Private	Public	State and local government	Federal government
1949	95.2%	4.8%
1959	94.5%	5.5%
1969	83.7%	16.3%
1979	73.7%	26.3%
1989	62.1%		31.8%	6.1%
2000	56.4%		37.3%	6.4%
2007	51.8%		42.4%	5.8%
2017	51.3%		42.1%	6.6%

ChartData

Note: Data allowing for a disaggregation of the public sector into federal government and state and local government became available in 1989.

Source: EPI analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group microdata and CPS May Extract microdata

FIGURE C

6.2 million state/local government union members push public-sector union membership close to private-sector levelsUnion members by sector, 1949–2017 (in millions)

	Private	Public	State and local government	Federal government
1949	13.6	0.7
1950	13.2	0.7
1950	13.6	0.7
1951	14.4	0.8
1952	14.8	0.8
1953	15.5	0.8
1954	15.0	0.8
1955	15.3	0.8
1956	15.6	0.8
1957	15.7	0.8
1958	14.7	0.8
1959	14.6	0.8
1960	14.6	0.9
1961	14.5	0.9
1962	14.7	2.2
1963	14.8	2.3
1964	15.1	2.5
1965	15.6	2.6
1966	16.1	2.8
1967	16.6	3.1
1968	16.8	3.2
1969	16.9	3.3
1970	17.0	4.0
1971	16.5	4.3
1972	16.5	4.7
1973	16.8	5.1
1974	16.8	5.4
1975	16.4	5.8
1976	16.2	6.0
1977	15.9	5.8
1978	16.0	5.8
1979	16.2	5.8
1980	15.3	5.7
1981	15.0	5.7
1982	14.0	5.6
1983	13.2	5.4
1984	11.6	5.7
1985	11.2	5.7
1986	11.1	5.9
1987	10.8	6.1
1988	10.7	6.3
1989	10.5	6.4	5.4	1.0
1990	10.3	6.5	5.4	1.1
1991	10.0	6.6	5.6	1.0
1992	9.8	6.6	5.6	1.0
1993	9.6	7.0	5.9	1.1
1994	9.6	7.1	5.9	1.2
1995	9.4	6.9	5.8	1.1
1996	9.4	6.9	5.8	1.0
1997	9.4	6.7	5.7	1.0
1998	9.3	6.9	5.8	1.1
1999	9.4	7.1	6.0	1.0
2000	9.3	7.2	6.1	1.0
2001	9.3	7.2	6.2	1.1
2002	8.8	7.4	6.3	1.1
2003	8.5	7.3	6.3	1.0
2004	8.2	7.3	6.3	1.0
2005	8.3	7.4	6.5	1.0
2006	8.0	7.4	6.4	1.0
2007	8.1	7.6	6.6	0.9
2008	8.3	7.8	6.8	1.0
2009	7.4	7.9	6.9	1.0
2010	7.1	7.6	6.6	1.0
2011	7.2	7.6	6.5	1.0
2012	7.0	7.3	6.4	1.0
2013	7.3	7.2	6.3	0.9
2014	7.4	7.2	6.3	0.9
2015	7.6	7.2	6.3	1.0
2016	7.4	7.1	6.1	1.0
2017	7.6	7.2	6.2	1.0

ChartData

Note: Data allowing for a disaggregation of the public sector into federal government and state and local government became available in 1989.

Source: EPI analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group microdata and Labor Research Association data