Wages are 7% lower for workers in right-to-work states

People who live in “right-to-work” states make nearly 7% less, on average, than people who live in states without right to work laws, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute.

That wage gap has more than doubled in the last decade.

26 states have those right-to-work laws. Kentucky was the last to pass one in 2017.

“Right-to-work is kind of a misnomer,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute who co-authored the report.

Gould said these laws do not offer workers any job protections.

“Instead, what they do is prohibit any requirement that workers covered by union contract either join the union or contribute toward the cost of union representation,” she said.

Which makes unionizing harder.

In states with right-to-work laws, just 6% of workers are in a union, versus 16% in states without these laws. In addition, salaries are lower on average, especially for women and Black and Hispanic workers, according to Kyle Moore, chief economist at The Century Foundation.

“A lot of that comes down to what unions do for folks,” Moore said. “Black workers often see a greater benefit from having a union than white workers, because the private market is often unfair to Black workers.”
But Gould said the right-to-work laws themselves are just one factor.

“Non-right-to-work states are more likely to have higher minimum wages,” she said. “They're more likely to have restrictions on non-compete agreements or pay transparency policies.”

And Gould said those policies are likely also contributing to higher wages for workers in those states.