Unions Boost Economic (Upward) Mobility in U.S. States - Center for American Progress

[Bill USA]

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/labor/report/2012/09/20/38624/unions-boost-economic-mobility-in-u-s-states/

... some U.S. states have more economic mobility than others. According to data from the Pew Center on the States, a handful of states—among them Maryland and New Jersey—do much better on a range of mobility measures than the national average, and are almost twice as mobile as some of the worst performing states such as Louisiana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.

But what makes a state more or less mobile? Gov. Daniels and other conservatives may be interested to learn that strengthening labor unions—a group that they have often attacked—would help increase economic mobility.

Even a cursory review of the Pew mobility list indicates that union membership seems to affect mobility significantly: Six of the eight most mobile states have high unionization rates—Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Utah, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Maryland—and all but 1 of the 10 least mobile states—South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, West Virginia, Georgia, and Oklahoma—have low unionization rates and laws that discourage unionization.

Indeed, the 10 states with the highest unionization rates—New York, Hawaii, Michigan, New Jersey, Washington, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Oregon—perform considerably better on a range of measures of mobility than the 10 states with the lowest levels of unionization —South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Arizona, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, New Mexico, and Arkansas. As the charts in this brief highlight, states with high rates of unionization have greater absolute and upward mobility and lower rates of downward mobility than states with lower unionization rates.




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[rachel1]

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