Institute Refutes Obama’s Lame Comments About Right to Work With Facts
The recent enactment of a right-to-work law in Michigan, of all places, provoked a remarkable comment from President Obama: “These so-called ‘right to work’ laws, they don’t have to do with economics; they have everything to do with politics,†he said. “What they’re really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money.â€
It’s true that wages in right-to-work (RTW) states tend to be lower than in non-right-to-work (NRTW) states. However, adjusted for the cost of living, per capita disposable personal income is $2,000 greater in RTW states than in NRTW states, according to the National Institute for Labor Relations Research. The organization is a research facility for the general public, scholars and students and provides analysis and research necessary “to expose the inequities of compulsory unionism,†according to its mission.
Source: National Institute for Labor Relations Research. Right to Work States Benefit From Faster Growth, Higher Real Purchasing Power – August 2012 Update.
Moreover, says the institute, over the past decade, real employee compensation in RTW states grew four times as much as in NRTW states – 12.5 percent versus just 3.1 percent.
Source: National Institute for Labor Relations Research. Right to Work States Benefit From Faster Growth, Higher Real Purchasing Power – August 2012 Update.
President Obama claims credit for any job growth, but 72 percent of all net household job growth in the U.S. Since 2009 was in RTW states, according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. No wonder more than 4.7 million Americans moved from NRTW states to RTW states from 2000 to 2008, according to a 2010 study published by the Cato Institute.
Why does the president nevertheless insist that the right to work is really just “the right to work for less?â€
Follow the money.
