Despite declining membership, organized labor continues to reduce economic inequality in the American states

Economic inequality is a growing problem in the US. While labor unions are one pathway to lower levels of inequality, their presence in the US is declining relative to other industrialized democracies. But to what extent does organized labor provide a check on inequality above that of public policy? Using the American states, Laura Bucci finds new evidence that those where unions have more members are more equal, and that this pattern is not simply because those states are more liberal. While organized labor does lower levels of inequality, state labor policy, such as enacting Right to Work laws may make the relationship more difficult to maintain over time.