Right to Work States Benefit From Faster Growth, Higher Real Purchasing Power
Right to Work States Benefit From Faster Growth, Higher Real Purchasing Power — Spring 2018 Update |
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Percentage Growth in Total Private Sector, Non-Farm Employment (2006-2016) |
Right To Work States | 14.0% |
Forced-Unionism States | 10.7% | |
Source: Dept.of Commerce (DOC), Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) |
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Percentage Growth in the Number of People Employed (2007-2017) |
Right To Work States | 8.8% |
Forced-Unionism States | 4.2% | |
Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Household Survey |
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Growth in Manufacturing, Private-Sector Payroll Employment (2012-2017) |
Right To Work States | 5.5% |
Forced-Unionism States | 1.7% | |
BLS Establishment Survey |
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Cost of Living-Adjusted Per Capita Disposable Personal Income (2017) |
Right To Work States | $ 42,857 |
Forced-Unionism States | $ 40,611 | |
Missouri Economic Research and Information Center; BEA |
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Aggregate “Tax Freedom Day”* (2018) |
Right To Work States | April 13 |
Forced-Unionism States | April 26 | |
Tax Foundation; BEA |
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Unfunded Liabilities Per Capita of Public Pension Plans (2017) |
Right To Work States | $14,095 |
Forced-Unionism States | $23,354 | |
American Legislative Exchange Council |
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Percentage Real Growth in Household Consumption (2006-2016) |
Right To Work States | 20.2% |
Forced-Unionism States | 15.6% | |
Source: Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) |
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Welfare (TANF) Recipients Per 1000 Residents (FY 2017) |
Right To Work States | 3.8 |
Forced-Unionism States | 11.6 | |
U.S. Admin. for Children and Families; DOC Census Bureau (BOC) |
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Growth in Number of Residents Aged 35-54 (2006-2016) |
Right To Work States | 1.8% |
Forced-Unionism States | -7.4% | |
BOC |
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Growth in Employment of Majority-Owned U.S. Affiliates of Nondomestic Companies (2010-2015) |
Right To Work States | 28.7% |
Forced-Unionism States | 21.0% | |
BEA | ||
New Privately-Owned Single-Unit Housing Authorizations Per Thousand Residents (CY 2017 – preliminary) |
Right To Work States | 3.4 |
Forced-Unionism States | 1.6 | |
BOC |
* The term “Tax Freedom Day” was coined and popularized by the nonpartisan, Washington, D.C. based Tax Foundation. As the Tax Foundation has explained, it is “the day when Americans . . . finally have earned enough money to pay off their total [federal, state and local] tax bill for the year.” (For simplicity’s sake, the Tax Foundation assumes an equal amount of income is earned every day, and does not distinguish weekdays from weekends.)
Indiana and Michigan became Right to Work states in early 2012 and early 2013, respectively. Wisconsin’s Right to Work law was adopted in March 2015, and West Virginia banned forced union dues and fees in 2016. These four states are excluded from all multi-year analyses including the year in which they went Right to Work. They are included among the Right to Work states for analyses covering only the period since their laws took effect. Since the Kentucky Right to law was not adopted until last year, it is counted as Right to Work only for the analyses covering 2017 or 2018 alone. Since the Missouri Right to Work adopted in 2017 has yet to take effect, it is never counted as a Right to Work state.
To obtain more detailed information about how any or all of the above comparative economic data were derived, contact Stan Greer — e-mail stg@nrtw.org .
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