Unions Matter to African American Workers
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UNIONS MATTER
African American Workers: Joining Unions to Get an Equal Share
A gap persists between African American workers and white workers in the U.S. workforce. African Americans continue to be economically and socially disadvantaged.
• Income: In 2005, the median income for African American households was $30,858-only 67 percent of the median U.S. household income of $46,326.
• Pay: African American men in 2006 made 78 percent of the median weekly earnings of their white counterparts. African American women made 85 percent of the earnings of their white counterparts.
• Poverty: In 2005, the black poverty rate (24.9 percent) was nearly twice that of the nation as a whole (12.6 percent).
• Unemployment: In January 2007, the unemployment rate among African Americans was 8.0 percent, twice as high as that of whites (4.1 percent).
• Low-wage jobs: African Americans represent 10.9 percent of all workers, but they are overrepresented in such low-wage jobs as building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (15.5 percent of workers) and under-represented in such higher-wage jobs as managers (6.4 percent of workers).
Union membership helps close the gaps.
African American workers make 36 percent more with a union than without one. African American union workers have a median weekly wage of $707-without a union, they earn a weekly wage of $520. Union wages help raise living standards for everyone in the community. Unions help African American workers remedy discrimination on the job because a union contract provides the means to solve grievances and to seek equal treatment. Collective bargaining is especially important to African American workers who are trapped in low wage occupations. For example, union janitors earn 31 percent more than nonunion janitors.
African American workers want unions. African Americans are more likely to be members of unions. About 14.5 percent of black workers are in unions, compared with 12.0 percent of all workers. But even more African Americans say they would join unions if given the chance. According to a national survey conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates in 2001, African Americans 35 and older are among the strongest supporters of the right to choose a union, backing the right to collective bargaining by 93 percent, with all African Americans at 85 percent.
Report from the Center for Economic & Policy Research: Unions and Upward Mobility for African-American Workers
