Since 2001, Right to Work States Lead in Job Growth, Five-to-One

For many years, U.S. Labor Department data have shown that states with Right to Work
laws on the books have far faster private-sector job growth than states that do not protect
employees from federal policies authorizing the termination of workers for refusal to pay dues or
fees to an unwanted union.

Between 1996 and 2006, private-sector jobs in Right to Work states increased by a net
19.8%. That’s an 87% greater increase than the relatively small increase in private-sector jobs
experienced by non-Right to Work states over this period. (See the tables on pages three and four
for details. Oklahoma, which adopted its Right to Work law in 2001, is excluded from this
calculation. However, between 2003, when the Sooner Supreme Court rejected two Big Labor
lawsuits designed to overturn the Right to Work law, and 2006, Oklahoma job growth was 6.1%,
well over half again as fast as in non-Right to Work states.)

The Right to Work job-growth advantage becomes even more critical in times when the
national economy is recovering from a recession.

Over the five years from 2001 to 2006, private-sector jobs in forced-dues states barely
increased at all. Over this entire period, private-sector employment went from 68.41 million to
69.25 million, a gain of just 1.2%. Meanwhile, private-sector jobs in Right to Work states
increased by 2.6 million, or 6.3%, between 2001 and 2006. (Since Oklahoma was a Right to Work
state for the entire period, this time it is included.)