{"id":300562,"date":"2021-09-06T10:26:01","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T10:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobinmag.com\/2021\/09\/labor-day-chart-union-membership-share-top-10-percent-income-inequality\/"},"modified":"2021-09-06T10:36:35","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T10:36:35","slug":"the-labor-day-graph-that-says-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/09\/06\/the-labor-day-graph-that-says-it-all\/","title":{"rendered":"The Labor Day Graph That Says It All"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

A reminder that if we hope to ever rebuild an economy that works for everyone, we need a much stronger labor movement.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\n Union membership and share of income going to the top 10%, 1917\u20132017. (Economic Policy Institute)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

We shared the above graph last Labor Day \u2014 but it\u2019s so important, we want to share it again.<\/p>\n

Please spread this information far and wide, since this is data everyone should see on our annual celebration of the labor movement.<\/p>\n

The above graph comes from the\u00a0Economic Policy Institute<\/a>.\u00a0It shows the relationship between union density and the percentage of national income going to the richest 10 percent of Americans. As you can see, the larger the share of the American workforce that\u2019s unionized, the lower the share of national income that goes to the superrich \u2014 and vice versa.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also combined the union density graph with\u00a0another from EPI<\/a>\u00a0showing the break between worker productivity gains and worker compensation gains. It tells an important story about what happened between 1948 and 2017.<\/p>\n

Before around 1980, worker productivity and compensation steadily increased as union membership grew and remained relatively high. Then when union membership declined, there wasn\u2019t a sharp uptick in productivity (the rate of gain remained roughly the same from the days of stronger unions). The thing that changed was workers\u2019 compensation.<\/p>\n

With less union strength, workers simply started getting paid less. With fewer unions, workers\u2019 productivity gains that had previously been compensated were instead pocketed by owners and shareholders. (For more on this phenomenon, read this\u00a0terrific backgrounder<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Yes, wages\u00a0have recently increased a bit<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 but the overall point still stands.<\/p>\n

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Forward these graphs to your family and friends. Tweet it. Post it on your social media feeds.<\/p>\n

On this Labor Day, tell as many people as you can that if we hope to ever rebuild an economy that works for everyone, we need everyone to remember that there is power in a union.<\/p>\n