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What Is The Impact Of Right To Work Laws In The United States

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The Impact of Right-to-Work Laws in the United States

Labor laws in the United States have a significant impact on citizens. These policies all have a significant impact on working conditions, including wages, hours, and benefits. In recent years, many states have passed a specific labor law called a right-to-work law. Currently, there are 28 states that have passed or have pending right-to-work legislation. Under a right-to-work law, workers are allowed to be represented by a labor union but not pay their membership fees. These labor unions are associated groups of workers who participate in collective bargaining to protect and push for better working conditions and wages. In states without right-to-work laws, workers have to pay a mandatory …show more content…

RTW laws help the executives of corporations who now can spend less on their workers, widening the socioeconomic gap between the rich and the poor. The laws “would keep even more power in the hands of companies that, despite record corporate profits in recent years, have not shared their gains with workers” (Erickson). Since RTW laws weaken unions, corporations are able to pay their workers less and provide fewer benefits, allowing them to benefit from increased profits. The benefits of these increased profits only go to the business executives, widening the socioeconomic gap between the rich and the poor. Corporations benefit from weakened labor unions because they no longer have to comply with union requests for better working conditions, directly increasing incomes and profits for wealthy Americans while harming workers. Additionally, beyond directly lowering wages for workers, right-to-work laws also trap workers within low-wage occupations. In states with right-to-work laws, “25.9 percent of jobs are in low-wage occupations, compared with 18.0 percent of jobs in other states” (IUPAT). By weakening unions and their ability to bargain, workers in states with right-to-work laws are more likely to work in low-wage occupations. This hinders their ability for upward mobility since many of the jobs in their state are fundamentally low-wage, creating wealth inequality …show more content…

Poverty levels are higher in states with right-to-work laws, at “14.8 percent … compared with poverty rates of 13.1 percent … in states without these laws” (IUPAT). The higher poverty rates in states with right-to-work laws indicate the structural issues caused by the right-to-work laws. Some proponents of right-to-work laws argue that correlative studies, such as the ones analyzed by the IUPAT, do not prove that right-to-work laws themselves caused a decrease in wages and an increase in poverty. Many argue that such changes are due to the state's initial economic conditions rather than the law itself. However, in a study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, “wages … in right-to-work states are 3.1 percent lower … than those in non-right-to-work states, even after controlling for a host of other socioeconomic and demographic factors” (Erickson). This study controls for many confounding variables and still finds that wages are lower in right-to-work states, which indicates that right-to-work laws play a significant role in the socioeconomic issues observed in states with right-to-work

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