Though the Biden administration pursued several policies aimed at boosting organized labor, the union membership rate fell to an all-time low in 2023, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Tuesday.
Just 10% of American wage and salary workers were union members in 2023, down from the previous all-time low of 10.1% in 2022 and 10.3% in 2021, according to BLS. The continued drops have occurred despite the Biden administration’s efforts to boost organized labor by pushing for union jobs on federal projects and implementing policies aimed reduc[ing] barriers to worker organizing by providing information to potential union organizers, among other things.
The unionization rate was 20.1% in 1983, the first year when comparable data was available, according to BLS. The proportion of workers in unions is now less than half of that, with more than three million fewer workers in unions now than in 1983.
The continued decline of organized labor comes despite the Biden administration’s efforts to support organized labor.
The White House announced in March 2023 that federal agencies had been working to advance recommendations made by a task force led by Vice President Kamala Harris and focused on worker organization.
The task force made recommendations that included providing workers with information about unionizing, making it easier for federal contractors to unionize, including unions on federal advisory committees, expanding collective bargaining rights for the Transportation Security Administration, helping workers secure collective bargaining agreements and increasing federal messaging on the importance of unionization, among other things, according to the White House.
The National Education Association (NEA), American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, a trio of public unions, spent approximately $278.3 million in membership dues on political activities between 2021 and 2022.
Much of this union spending went to pro-Democrat groups like the Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC founded to protect and expand the number of Democrats in the United States Senate, Building Back Together, another super PAC that advances the policy agenda of the Biden-Harris Administration and the Strategic Victory Fund, which operates to boost Democrats in state-level elections.
Government workers are overrepresented among union members, according to BLS.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
