Members’ wages and benefits contribute to greater wealth

The Federal Reserve recently conducted a survey on consumer finances and found what many of us in the Labor Movement already know: Union households are much better off than non-Union households.

How much better? Union households, on average, possess 1.7 times the wealth of non-Union households.

Even more startling is how Unions help bridge the racial wealth gap. The survey found membership in a Union increases median wealth between 167 percent and 228 percent for households of color. This is compared with a 37 percent increase in median wealth for white households.

The survey also found Union members of all levels of education fared much better than their non-Union counterparts. On average, Union workers who have a high school degree earned about $69,510, while similar non-Union workers earned $22,800.

These figures tell us a Union worker with a high school degree can earn almost three times the income of a similar non- Union worker!

The survey revealed yet another fact: Union workers enjoy better work benefits than non-Union workers do.

For example, 65.6 percent of Union workers had access to 401(k) retirement plans through their employers, while only 51.1 percent of non-Union workers had such access. For defined-benefit pensions, the numbers are higher: 59.9 percent of Union workers had access to an employer-provided pension while only 23.7 percent of non-Union workers could access a similar plan.

The quality of those 401(k) and defined-benefit plans makes a difference in retiree wealth.

The average value of retirement wealth for a Union household is $200,000, compared with non-Union households, which possess an average of $109,298 in retiree wealth.

When we say “Solidarity Works,” we have the data to prove it!