Regular Freedom@Work readers are already familiar with a growing body of evidence that points to Right to Work states' superior economic performance. A new fact sheet from the National Institute for Labor Relations Research further bolsters the economic case for worker freedom. The Institute's findings show that citizens in Right to Work states enjoyed faster growth and more purchasing power than their counterparts in forced unionism states over the past 10 years. Here are a few of the highlights:
Right to Work States Benefit From Faster Growth, Higher Real Purchasing Power – 2011 Update
Percentage Growth in Non-Farm Private-Sector Employees (2000-2010)
Right to Work States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +0.3%
Forced-Unionism States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . -5.5%
National Average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -3.3%
Source: Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)Percentage Real Growth in Private-Sector Employee Compensation (2000-2010)
Right to Work States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.3%
Forced-Unionism States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.7%
(2000-2010) National Average . . . . . . . . . 4.3%
BEA; BLSCost of Living-Adjusted Compensation Per Private-Sector Employee (2010)
Right to Work States . . . . . . . . . . . . . $56,575
Forced-Unionism States . . . . . . . . . . . $55,420
National Average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $55,896
Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC);
BEA; Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census (BOC)
Right to Work is first and foremost about protecting employee freedom, but the economic performance of Right to Work states is a nice bonus. For more on the economic benefits of Right to Work laws, check out this op-ed from Foundation President Mark Mix in The Washington Examiner.
Comments
Mark "the shark" Mixer
Hey Mark when these people do away with their unions, are you going to go bargain new raises and benefits to keep up with cost of living?
Are you going to fight for them when they want a raise? I would bet my house you won't touch them with a 10' pole. When there left by theirselve to negotiate a wage increase, they will have no chance. They will be told of how the company is not making enough money and there is no possibility of a raise.
Where will you be then Mark "the shark" Mixer. Preying on the weak and defenseless.
do it yourself
Hey Shark,
No the union isn't needed for that nor is Mark. You do it yourself. It's called a performance review. Work hard and get rewarded; don't work hard and lose your job.
Simple right...even for someone like you.
Good companies are good to their employees. It doesn't take a union to make it happen.
RTW
Tell that to the workers in AL. or FL. I am taking pay cuts and the working conditions are getting worse everyday. The foremans nephew couldn't operate a wheelbarrel,but they are paying him about $1 more an hr. So much for merit pay and working hard. You probably think it's OK to pay some CEO millions for running a company into the ground. Everyone gets laid off or fired and he gets a bonus. Have you ever worked union? I have and it's head and shoulders above working non-union.
unions
I have worked both and had to find my own work after the union laid me off,3 months later i went none union after all the relatives were hired back first even though i was one of the last to be laid off, Friends and relatives first in unions,That's were lazy people just have to show up.
unions
When the unions are gone - and their astronomical wages and benefits that push our businesses overseas and put many out of business all together, the entire country will be better off.
Unions are a political machine that buys off people in exchange for more and more and more money and power to do what THEY want. Those who are paying into this crap get NO SAY ever about where there money is going. If they aren't rabid leftists, they wouldn't like what they're buying at all. They use intimidation, fear, threats and worse to make everyone pay up and shut up. And you are foolish enough to think that because they get you more money they have your best interests at heart...Or does it even matter as long as you get inflated wages and perks? Does it matter that they are hurting everybody else?? Nope, I doubt it. Unions and those people who foolishly and selfishly close their eyes to the disgusting things the unions support are killing this country...but they don't care as long as they get theirs... who cares about anyone else?
Time for unions to go far far far away...never to be heard from again. So we can then have a free market economy and also clear the political scene from a great deal of its graft and corruption...
Corporate greed!!!!
Listen Up, the only thing that EVER made jobs leave this country is CORPORATE GREED!!! By making ANY STATE RTW will only grow the corporate greed in this country...every one says that the auto industry was getting paid too much and that is why they moved to Mexico...how much less is it to buy a car since...where is the difference in pay from 25.00 per hr to dollars a day? Wake up and smell the coffee...this country and the CEO's are getting the money not the people..that is what unions are good for...share the profit!!
Rhetoric
You're spouting liberal rhetoric. Unions cost more, that's it. They don't do better work cheaper. Public unions are nothing but a monopoly robbing the taxpayer for wages they don't deserve or earn. Sorry, but no union ever made the project better, cheaper, run better, work better, or do anything better, it just costs a ton more.
Jobs went off-shore because of taxes and regulations. I recommend you go to taxfoundation.org and learn something. Canadian corporate rates are 15%. Our is 38% I can move my factory to Canada and save 23% right off the bat? You bet I'm moving as growth requires profit and the US takes profit and renames it revenue to be wasted by the government.
You're entirely wrong, and CEO's should make big money as they'
re the boss over millions upon millions of risk = risk, another item the left knows nothing about.
Why do we even bother when they spew their boogeymen words like CEO?
Rhetoric
You're spouting liberal rhetoric. Unions cost more, that's it. They don't do better work cheaper. Public unions are nothing but a monopoly robbing the taxpayer for wages they don't deserve or earn. Sorry, but no union ever made the project better, cheaper, run better, work better, or do anything better, it just costs a ton more.
Jobs went off-shore because of taxes and regulations. I recommend you go to taxfoundation.org and learn something. Canadian corporate rates are 15%. Our is 38% I can move my factory to Canada and save 23% right off the bat? You bet I'm moving as growth requires profit and the US takes profit and renames it revenue to be wasted by the government.
You're entirely wrong, and CEO's should make big money as they'
re the boss over millions upon millions of risk = risk, another item the left knows nothing about.
Why do we even bother when they spew their boogeymen words like CEO?
You are wrong
Kathie, PROFITS FOLLOW THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE, much like water and electricity. This is an economic law, not a theory. A regulatory maze is expensive, difficult to navigate, and getting more complicated and bloated every month under Obama and his army of big gov't bureaucrats. Why create jobs under these conditions? Why continue operations under these conditions when you can move to an easier place to make millions? Corporations also have to perform for their stockholders (CEO's, I agree are often overpaid) Cars made offshore WOULD COST EVEN MORE if made here by union shops. The union I belong to is more crooked than my employer by far. My union was the victim of a HOSTILE TAKEOVER by another union from an unrelated craft, IT WAS AN INSIDE JOB-all for our money, enabled by Obama's administration and his union thug (NLRB's Craig Becker, google him, his RECESS appointment, his UNION background) By LAW we can't even go on strike. RTW states are much better off financially for a reason, unions suck. Calif, NY, Illinois are all broke, much of the blame should be laid at the feet of the unions jackboots.
Dear Anonymous, Yep, our
Dear Anonymous,
Yep, our "inflated" and "astronomical" wages to receive a fair days pay for a fair days work is whats killing the country. Whats "killing" the country is the jobs going overseas to be done at slave labor. Working 16 hr days away from our families and making tens of dollars. What a great country that would be! You associate unions with intimidation, fear, and threats. How about collective bargaining for cost of living increases, safe working practices, health benefits, retirement, 8 hour work days, overtime pay, and for minimum wage! Those were all brought on by unions organized single voice of many hard working people. True, I have just as much of a say about how my dues are allocated just as much as my government officials spend our mandatory tax dollars. But i am just as happy about someone fighting for my quality of life, so I can afford for my kid can see a doctor AND eat dinner at night, as I am to see a road fixed as I drive her to public school. Imagine the "evil pro union" teachers quality of education she would give your kids if she wasn't happy about her job security and benefits? Imagine the tax dollars spent to cover the medical bills if the "lazy" union workers didn't fight for the right to pay it themselves? I have no problem paying dues to my "elected" representative to fight for myself and collectively my brothers right to a better life for us and our families. Thats their job. You have a job to get paid. I am not forced to work union, I have the privilege of working union. If I want to save the few hundred dollars a year in dues to make thousands less a year, I HAVE THE FREE WILL TO DO SO. You want to buy into the anti-union propaganda, don't join a union? Feel free to give up your right to a better life. JUst leave mine to me. Truth is, I'm sure they could create plenty of paying jobs as long as your willing to work for less....but how little do you price yourself?
Are u in a union?
Are u in a union?
Bye Bye weekends?
Sure when the unions are gone, we all will be working for nothing. Corporate america will eat you up and spit you back out, only to make half of what you make now. You will also not be recieving overtime pay and you will be working 7 days a week.
Maybe you should go to a union meeting. Thats were we discuss what is happening with our money as a whole. If you chose not to go that's your fault.
You are the one hurting jobs, by allowing companies to walk all over individuals and intimidate them. You are the one holding average income families to live the american dream.
Overtime
Maybe before you start making claims that you can't back up, you should check with you state labor dept. Overtime for over 40 hours has been law for a long time.
UNIONS
DURING MY WORKING DAYS, I WAS UNION. BUT THE UNIONS HAVE GOTTEN TOOO BIG. YOU REALLY DON'T HAVE ANY SAY ON HOW THEY SPEND YOUR DUES. TO COMPETE WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD WE CAN'T EXPECT TO GET PAID THE BIG BUCKS WE WERE GETTING. WE NEED TO WORK FOR A LITTLE LESS. A LEGIT PROFIT SHARING WOULD BE GOOD FOR BOTH SIDES.
DO REALLY THINK THAT THINGS WILL GET BETTER THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING. WITH REAL UNEMPLOYMENT AT 16%.
Enjoying Retirement?
The only thing that has gotten too big is CEO pocketbooks. You should remember what it's like to have to work everyday to feed and cloth a family or yourselve. You can't do it on minimum wage. Corporate level employees work hard at going to lunch, golfing, raquet ball, or meaningless meetings while making 100X what their average employee makes. If the rest of the world wants to live in poverty while select few wine and dine that's their ignorance.
And if your not able to go to your union meeting and express your concerns about the way money is spent, than you do have a problem. Any persons in a union should demand to be able to give their opinion. That's how are union works. If the ELECTED officials are not working in the best interest as a whole, than vote him out.
Bias
National Institute for Labor Relations Research is another website with biased opinions and beliefs. No real facts.
Then dispute their facts BIAS
If that's what you believe BIAS then prove them wrong instead of just issuing an adhominem.
Here ya go
Oklahoma manufacturing employment has decreased by 25% after passage of RTW. The number of companies that came into Oklahoma has decreased by 33% after passing RTW.
On a per-capita personal income basis over the last thirty years, four of the five fastest growing states were non-RTW.
That was not due to RTW that
That was not due to RTW that was due to Federal Regulations on oil drilling. So of course this is going to effect Oklahoma. You cannot deny that RTW states still have a lower job loss rate.
Reasons for leaving
It's the same kind of reason manufacturing jobs are leaving. They move were there will be tax breaks, TIF money, infrastructure, and regulations as you point out. Companies pick were to locate from these key positions. They care less about RTW status.
Trolls here too
Looks like the trolls are here too. No freedom of speech allowed. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure that right-to-work states have a MUCH better work environment than union-states. Unions are no more than legalized extortion.
hey, dumbass, freedom of
hey, dumbass, freedom of speech works both ways! typical republican asshole thinks only he should have the right to speek but no-one else should! say whatever you want, pal, id love to prove you an idiot again!!
Better work enviroment?
RTW states have a much higher death rate on construction projects. That's what happens when you pay lower wages, you get employees' that are untrained and unskilled which leads to more accidents.
That means alot to a construction worker.
right to work
Right to work states are right to work for less states...just google income & poverty stats in those states. unions gave us the worker rights we have today: 40 hour work week, child labor laws, overtime pay, sick days, vaca, holidays, minimum wage, etc. Union membership's decline graph parallels the decline in wages graph over the last 30 years. Those are the facts.
right to work
Right to work states are right to work for less states...just google income & poverty stats in those states. unions gave us the worker rights we have today: 40 hour work week, child labor laws, overtime pay, sick days, vaca, holidays, minimum wage, etc. Union membership's decline graph parallels the decline in wages graph over the last 30 years. Those are the facts.
right to work
Right to work states are right to work for less states...just google income & poverty stats in those states. unions gave us the worker rights we have today: 40 hour work week, child labor laws, overtime pay, sick days, vaca, holidays, minimum wage, etc. Union membership's decline graph parallels the decline in wages graph over the last 30 years. Those are the facts.
The right to work is simply
The right to work is simply what it says "The right to work". No unions, no dues, no scabs, no scum bag union bullies. Every job lost by Gm, Ford, Chrysler,and every other unionized company is a job gained in another country to manufacture what your union cost you, your job. Those jobs are then recycled by the foreign entity and brought back for you to repurchase the same product you once helped to create. Your unions are the reasons for the Auto bankruptsies and bailouts. I predict they will fail again because the unions are ruled by only one thing, Greed. Don't take my word for it just look where all the overseas automakers are building their factories. If your smart you guessed it, the South. If you look a little deeper into your crystal ball you will see that one thing is certain. The South Will Rise Again.
NOT
Mexican autoworkers wages are 1/10th of even non-union autoworkers in the U.S. The RTW advantage is meaningless in this context.
In the 10 years since RTW passed in Oklahoma, 100 Oklahoma employers closed their doors due to foreign trade.
I don't think the south is going anywhere except Mexico, buddy.
RTW
Exactly what is says the Right to Work for less.
Wrong
Labor cost on making a new vehicle is less than 10% of the total cost. They spend more on TV ads than they do making the actual car. Kansas City is actually expanding their plants, Ford and GM, and were not in the south.
The south never has risen, they lost the Revolution.