Labor unions deserve credit for many of the workplace policies that Americans now take for granted—a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, pay for overtime, and protections from health and safety hazards—and the labor movement continues to champion state and local policies such as paid sick days and paid family leave, policies that are beneficial to all working women and families. Because hiring, pay, and promotion criteria and decisions are more transparent for union members, gender and racial bias is minimized. Women, and especially women of color, who are either affiliated with a union or whose job is covered by a union contract, earn higher wages and are much more likely to have employer-provided health insurance than women who are not in unions.

Among women working full-time, those in unions have median weekly earnings of $942, compared with $723 for non-union workers, an increase of $219, or 30 percent (Figure 1). For all of the major racial and ethnic groups of women, median earnings are higher when comparing full-time workers in unions with full-time non-union workers. The earnings advantage is largest for Hispanic women. Non-union Hispanic women have the lowest earnings of any racial/ethnic group of women, $565 weekly, but Hispanic women in unions earn $264 more weekly, a 47 percent increase, than those who are not.