Seventeen of the 18 Most Rapidly Graying States From 1990-2010 Lacked Right to Work Laws

The Northeast is getting older, and it’s going to cost them

America as a whole is graying. However, massive out-migration of young adults in their career-building years and their children is causing many forced-unionism states to age far more rapidly than the national average. Graph credit: managedcaremag.com

In 1990, Florida had already long been established as a mecca for retirees weary of snow and ice, and, with a median age of 36.2, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, it was the oldest state in the country.

By 2010 Florida’s median age had increased to 40.7.  But it was no longer the “grayest” state.  Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and West Virginia all had median ages of 41.3 or more.

As a September 12 analysis for the Washington Post by political writer Reid Wilson explains (see the link above), the reason Florida is no longer America’s oldest state isn’t because large numbers of retirees have suddenly decided they love New England or Appalachian winters after all.  Rather, it is because “dramatic internal migrations” of “younger residents just beginning their careers” are depriving states like Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and West Virginia of young adults, and especially of young adults who are parents or plan to become parents soon.  In short, such states are aging rapidly not because their populations aged 65-and-up are growing especially fast relative to the national average, but rather because their populations aged 35-and-under are growing so slowly relative to the national average.

Wilson collectively labels the most rapidly graying states as the “Northeast,” and it is true that many are located in the Northeast.  However, a number of the states identified in a chart at the end of the story has having the greatest increases in median age from 1990-2010, such as Hawaii, West Virginia, Montana, New Mexico and Kentucky, are not located in the Northeast according to any reasonable definition

What really binds together nearly all of the states that are getting older the fastest is the lack of a Right to Work law protecting employees from termination for refusal to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union.  In fact, according to The Post’s chart, which is based on U.S. Census Bureau data, in 17 of the 18 states with the greatest increase in median age over the 20-year period forced union dues and fees were permitted.  (In 2012, one of  the 17, Michigan, became a Right to Work state.)  These states are located in the Northeast, the Southeast, the Mountain West, and the Pacific West.  The sole exception is Right to Work South Carolina, and Census data show that, atypically,  this state’s accelerated aging is due to very high in-migration of retirees, rather than any net out-migration of young adults and children.

In contrast, of the eight states with the most slowing aging populations from 1990-2010, all had Right to Work laws, and retain them today.  The eight are located everywhere from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest to the Southeast.

Why would compulsory unionism be so strongly correlated with a graying population and the net out-migration of people under 35 that is the principal reason why some states are getting older faster than others?

As I have discussed in other Institute blog posts, the main reason appears to be that compulsory unionism, through both direct and indirect means, suppresses the creation and retention of jobs that pay well enough to support a family, when interstate differences in cost of living are taken into account.

Big Labor politicians like New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan (D ) recognize that the persistent, large net out-migration of young people from their states is a problem, but are so far unwilling to support what is, the data indicate, the most promising reform to change the trend: abolition of union officials’ special privilege to force workers to pay dues and fees as a job condition.