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  5. Unions and Racial/Ethnic Inequality
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Unions and Racial/Ethnic Inequality

Paper Session

Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM (PST)

Hotel Spero, Serrano
Hosted By: Labor and Employment Relations Association
  • Chair: Aaron Sojourner, Upjohn Institute

Documenting the Racial Wealth Gap by Union Membership

Christian Weller
,
University of Massachusetts-Boston
David Madland
,
Center for American Progress

Abstract

Black, Hispanic, Native American and many Asian households often have less wealth than White ones do. This racial wealth gap may be smaller among union members than nonunion members if union membership positively correlates with more wealth and if that correlation is greater among people of color than among White households. Previous research based on the Federal Reserve triennial Survey of Consumer Finances from 1989 to 2019 finds that households of all races and ethnicities have more wealth as union members than as nonunion members and the increase was larger for Black and Hispanic than for Whites. This paper will update and expand upon prior findings using the 2022 SCF as well as the Survey of Income and Program Participation.

How Unions Help Workers Build Wealth and Avoid Debt

Teresa Ghilarducci
,
New School University

Abstract

Utilizing data from the Health and Retirement Survey and the Current Population Survey (CPS), our study aims to identify the institutions that play a pivotal role in facilitating wealth accumulation and debt avoidance among households. We specifically examine the impact of the collective bargaining system as an institution that assists households in planning their financial futures. We argue that the interaction between union households and the financial sector differs fundamentally from that of non-union workers. Therefore, it is essential to disentangle the independent effect of unions on both wealth accumulation and debt management. We also identify the interaction of the union - wealth effect by race and gender.

Intergenerational Wealth and Health Effects of Union Membership Across Race

Kyle Moore
,
Economic Policy Institute

Abstract

This study will investigate the relationship between parental union membership and the contemporary wealth and health outcomes of children in adulthood across race using the 2022 Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The working hypothesis is that parental union membership would have a protective effect on wealth and health for children through three pathways: an intergenerational transmission of union membership, and a positive contemporary effect of union membership on wealth and health outcomes; a positive effect of union membership on contemporary wealth through its positive effect on parental wealth and the intergenerational transmission of wealth; and a protective effect of union membership on contemporary health through the protective effect of parental wealth on contemporary health. Of particular interest is whether the effects of parental union membership on contemporary wealth and health differ for Black and white adults.

The Role of Labor Unions in Immigrant Integration

Julia Li Zhu
,
San Diego State University
Samuel Dodini
,
Norwegian School of Economics
Alexander Willen
,
Norwegian School of Economics

Abstract

We examine if unions narrow or widen labor market gaps between natives and immigrants. We do so by combining rich Norwegian employer-employee matched register data with exogenous variation in union membership obtained through national government policies that differentially shifted the cost to workers to join a union. While union membership significantly improves the wages of natives, its positive effects diminish substantially for Western immigrants and disappear almost entirely for non-Western immigrants. The effect of unions on native wages, and the role of unions in augmenting the native-immigrant wage gap, is nonexistent in competitive labor markets while it is substantial in markets characterized by a high degree of labor concentration. This implies that unions act as a countervailing force to employer power in imperfect markets and can ameliorate the negative labor market effects of labor market concentration, but only for natives. Using unions as a means to empower workers and solve market failures caused by imperfect competition in the labor market, therefore, is likely to lead to a significant increase in societal inequality.

Discussant(s)
Dania Francis
,
University of Massachusetts-Boston
Nari Rhee
,
University of California-Berkeley
JEL Classifications
  • J7 - Labor Discrimination