Introduction and summary

Although half of all workers in the United States would like to join unions, just 6 percent of private sector workers are union members.¹ To counteract the forces that suppress union membership, policy must actively promote unions and collective bargaining.

Many factors—including union organizing efforts, economic conditions, and individual characteristics and beliefs—affect whether workers join unions, but the policy environment is critical.² Research from the United States and around the world shows that six policy strategies meaningfully boost union membership:

• Strengthening workplace organizing and bargaining, such as limits on union busting
• Improving worker access, including providing unions with workers’ contact information
• Instituting sectoral bargaining, so unions can negotiate standards across an entire industry
• Adopting the Ghent system, where unions help deliver governmental benefits
• Supporting dues paying, including through repeal of right-to-work laws
• Providing funding for union activities, such as unemployment insurance for striking workers

These policies work best when pursued together because workers join unions for different reasons and through different pathways. Workers are more likely to join when unions deliver higher wages, pro-union norms and solidarity are strong, and workers have frequent contact with unions inside and outside the workplace—and the incentives encourage them to do so. Indeed, research shows that strong...

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