What's a union?+

A group of employees who organize together to bargain with their employer over pay, hours, and conditions. It's a right under the National Labor Relations Act. About 1 in 10 U.S. workers belongs to one.

Source: NLRA, 29 U.S.C. §157; BLS Union Members, 2025.

Union Math

What does a union actually do? The documented record: pay, benefits, trade-offs, and the claims tested from both sides.

Pay by field: union vs. nonunion
National figures: all U.S. workers
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This tool is for educational purposes only. It is not legal advice. For your situation, talk to a qualified attorney or the NLRB.

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Pay

All U.S. workers, union vs. nonunion.

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Benefits

Percent of workers who have this benefit, by union status.

Health & income protection
Medical care
Union
96%
Nonunion
69%
Life insurance
Union
86%
Nonunion
55%
Short-term disability
Union
73%
Nonunion
41%
Long-term disability
Union
44%
Nonunion
35%
Retirement
Any retirement plan
Union
94%
Nonunion
68%
Guaranteed pension
Union
66%
Nonunion
10%
401(k)-style plan Nonunion higher
Union
63%
Nonunion
68%
Paid time off
Paid sick leave
Union
86%
Nonunion
77%
Paid holidays
Union
92%
Nonunion
79%
Paid personal leave
Union
56%
Nonunion
45%
Paid family leave Nonunion higher
Union
23%
Nonunion
27%

Paid family leave spread first through white-collar employers, where few workers are union. Union contracts more often locked in sick leave, holidays, and pensions.

Workplace flexibility
Flexible schedule Nonunion higher
Union
4%
Nonunion
17%
Flexible workplace (remote) Nonunion higher
Union
1%
Nonunion
10%
Employee assistance program
Union
75%
Nonunion
52%

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Tradeoffs

Dues, strike risk, seniority, and how bargaining works.

Dues1–2% of pay

Unions set their own dues, typically 1–2% of gross pay (about 1.5% is most common), deducted each pay period. Union dues are no longer deductible on most federal tax returns.

Strike riskUncommon; no reliable rate

Strikes are relatively rare, but there's no honest percentage for how often bargaining ends in one. No agency publishes the total number of negotiations to compare against. For scale: about 30 major work stoppages (1,000+ workers) began in 2025, and most strikes are short. If a strike happens, it can mean temporary lost income, and workers who strike over pay can be permanently replaced.

SeniorityNot quantified

Promotions and shifts more often go by time on the job than by manager judgment. This protects longer-serving workers but can slow advancement for newer ones. No single reliable percentage captures how often it applies.

NegotiationSet collectively

Pay and terms are set collectively through the union contract rather than negotiated one-on-one between you and your employer. That trade, individual flexibility for collective leverage, cuts differently for different workers.

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Common claims

Common claims made for and against unions.

Claims made for unions
"Your job is safe if you go on strike."
Verdict: Overstated

You can't be fired for striking, but workers who strike over pay can be permanently replaced. It still happens: in the 2017 Charter/Spectrum strike, the longest active strike in the U.S. at the time, hundreds of striking workers were permanently replaced.

"Your dues only pay for bargaining, not politics."
Verdict: Misleading

Members' dues can fund political activity. A worker who objects can resign membership and pay only for bargaining-related costs; public employees can opt out of all fees. But the worker has to take those steps. By default, most members' dues do fund some politics.

"Unions don't protect bad workers."
Verdict: Contested

Union contracts make firing slower and require just cause, and arbitrators can order a worker rehired, which critics say shields poor performers. The same rules also block arbitrary or retaliatory firing, and unions can refuse to defend weak cases. Whether the net effect helps or hurts is an open dispute among researchers.

"A union guarantees higher pay."
Verdict: Not automatic

On average, union contracts pay about 10% more for similar workers. But a vote to form a union is not a raise by itself. Fewer than half of new unions reach a first contract within a year, and about 30% never reach one within three years. And in studies of close elections, the pay effect was near zero.

"Striking always pays off."
Verdict: False

Some strikes win big: recent contracts at UPS and the Big Three automakers brought large raises. Others lose badly. After Hostess workers struck in 2012, the company shut down and about 18,500 jobs were lost (why it failed is disputed). Wins and losses both happen.

Claims made against unions
"Dues will eat your paycheck."
Verdict: Misleading

Dues usually run 1–2% of pay (about 1.5% is common). For similar workers, union pay runs roughly 10% higher on average, several times the cost of dues. But it isn't automatic: the raise depends on winning a contract.

"You'll lose your job if you strike."
Verdict: Overstated

You can't be fired for striking. And workers who strike because their employer broke the law must get their jobs back. But workers who strike over pay can be permanently replaced. They keep the right to be called back later, not the right to return right away.

"The union is an outside third party."
Verdict: Misleading

A union is a real organization. It has officers and staff, and it reports its finances to the government. But it's one the workers choose. They ask for it, vote it in, elect its leaders, approve its contracts, and can vote it out. It speaks for them. It isn't an outsider forced on them.

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