Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill Monday officially making Wisconsin the 25th right-to-work state. Wisconsin workers can now choose whether they want to pay labor unions for representation, without fear of being fired for deciding they don’t want to.
In addition to freeing workers who are tired of being forced to bankroll labor unions, right-to-work laws tend to boost the economy of states that have them.
Right-to-work laws helped create, on average, growth that was 11.5 percentage points stronger than in non-right-to-work states from 1977 to 2012. That number, from research by the Competitive Enterprise Institute‘sRichard Vedder and Jonathan Robe, controls for outside factors that might alter economic growth, such as population growth or portion of employment in manufacturing. By not having right-to-work laws since the 1970s, many states have missed out on thousands of dollars of per capita income gains. In California, for example, per capita income would be at least $3,700 higher today if the state had a right-to-work law since 1977.
Liberal union supporters mock right-to-work laws, calling it “right-to-work for less.” This refers in part to the lower wages paid in some right-to-work states. However, this argument assumes that right-to-work laws are the only factor that affects the economy and ignores differences in cost of living, unlike the more thorough research done by Vedder and Robe.
For instance, Mississippi has a median hourly wage of $13.57, but low prices mean that a dollar in Mississippi goes further than it would in any other state. Meanwhile, in New York, the median hourly wage is $19.45, but high prices mean that wage does not go very far.
Union supporters should consider whether right-to-work laws actually help labor unions in the long-term. Since 2007, union membership fell by 6 percent in states without right-to-work, while falling by only 4 percent in right-to-work states. That excludes data for Michigan and Indiana, who became right-to-work states during that period and cannot yet be included in analysis of long-term impacts.
Right-to-work is popular with conservative activists, and passage of the law bolsters Gov. Walker’s record as he considers running for the presidency in 2016.
Wisconsin workers can now celebrate their right to work for any employer without being forced to join a union. In the long term, Wisconsin residents can look for expanded economic growth and higher incomes.
