(The Center Square) – The latest look at right-to-work states shows big differences in jobs, wages and state debt.
The National Institute for Labor Relations Research released its report this week on the benefits of right to work.
“Right to work continues to free employees by helping protect choice and creating new opportunities,” the report stated. “The cold, hard facts about the freedom and prosperity of right to work are more important now than ever.”
The report notes that between 2014 and 2024, right-to-work states saw the number of people employed jump by 16.4%, compared to 7.4% in forced unionization states.
The growth in manufacturing jobs was even more pronounced. The report states that right-to-work states saw a 10.4% increase in manufacturing jobs, compared to a .2% decrease in forced unionization states.
Total payroll growth was also larger in right-to-work states by more than 7%. The report shows an 8.7% difference in disposable income between right-to-work states and forced unionization states.
“The 26 right to work states – those that protect workers from being required to pay union dues just to keep a job – enjoy substantial advantages over the 24 states that still authorize union bosses to force workers to pay up or be fired,” the Institute said in a statement.
Those numbers don’t include benefits from recent right-to-work states like Wisconsin.
Wisconsin lawmakers approved a right-to-work plan in 2015.
Michigan approved right to work in 2013, West Virginia banned forced union dues and fees in 2016, and Kentucky became right to work in 2017. The Institute said those numbers were excluded from its “multi-year analyses.”
Michigan, however, is no longer a right-to-work state. Lawmakers there repealed its law in 2023, and right to work ended in 2024.
Wisconsin could be next. Democrats have fought against right to work in Wisconsin since 2015 and continue to fight it.
Many in the state expect the liberal-majority Supreme Court to overturn right to work in the near future. The court is currently working through a challenge to the state’s collective bargaining limits, known as Act-10, and many expect the justices to take up right to work after that.
