Labor unions — an organized group of workers in a given trade — have changed the nature of labor relations in the United States. Through collective bargaining, unions have fought to earn many workers’ rights that many of us take for granted, including weekends off, a 40-hour work week, and paid vacations.

As the global economy has become increasingly interconnected, however, foreign competition has resulted in weakening union power in much of the country. Traditional union demands for better working conditions, benefits, and pay have made it more difficult for American companies to compete in an international market, where labor is cheap. This has been especially true for the manufacturing sector — American automakers in particular. Here are five countries manufacturing more cars than America.

With plants closing amid global competition and companies demanding more leeway, the share of U.S. workers who were union members has been on the decline since the 1980s. Union membership rate nationwide declined by 1.1 percentage points in the last decade, from 11.9% in 2010 to 10.8% in 2020.

Union participation is anything but uniform across all states, and in some parts of the country membership remains at levels not seen nationally since the 1980s. Using state-level data on the share of workforces that belong to a labor union, 24/7 Wall St. identified the states with the strongest and weakest unions.

Generally, the states with where labor union participation is weakest, are those that have strong anti-union laws. Perhaps the most common and effective anti-union measures are so-called “right-to-work” laws, which prohibit companies from requiring employees to join a union or pay dues. The term “right-to-work” itself is misleading, as in no way do these laws guarantee employment for those seeking it. Instead, they erode the strength of unions, diminishing their collective bargaining power.

Just under 100,000 workers in Louisiana are members of a labor union — equal to 5.9% of the state’s total workforce. Like other states with lower than average labor union membership, Louisiana is a so-called right-to-work state.

Unlike other states with low membership, however, unions appear to be gaining strength in Louisiana. Since 2010, the share of workers in a union has increased by 1.5 percentage points, more than in all but four other states. Union membership peaked in 1993, when union members accounted for nearly 10% of workers. Membership hit an all time low in 2016, when only 4.2% of workers were unionized.

Union membership statistics are from UnionStats, a database powered by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. Additional data on historical union membership and union membership by sector also came from UnionStats. Supplemental data on annual median wage came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment Statistics program and is for 2019.

Rank	Geography:	Workers in a labor union:	10-yr. change in union membership (ppt.):	Avg. annual wage:
	United States	10.8%	-1.1	$53,490
1	Hawaii	23.6%	1.9	$54,930
2	New York	22.0%	-2.2	$63,970
3	Rhode Island	17.8%	1.4	$57,220
4	Alaska	17.6%	-5.3	$59,290
5	Washington	17.4%	-2.1	$62,020
6	Connecticut	17.1%	0.4	$62,350
7	Oregon	16.2%	0.0	$53,890
8	California	16.2%	-1.3	$61,290
9	New Jersey	16.1%	-1.0	$59,980
10	Minnesota	15.8%	0.2	$55,890
11	Michigan	15.2%	-1.3	$50,780
12	Maine	14.6%	3.0	$48,470
13	Illinois	14.2%	-1.3	$55,130
14	Pennsylvania	13.5%	-1.2	$51,340
15	Nevada	13.4%	-1.6	$47,210
16	Ohio	13.2%	-0.5	$49,430
17	Maryland	13.1%	1.5	$60,230
18	Montana	12.0%	-0.7	$45,370
19	Massachusetts	12.0%	-2.5	$65,680
20	Vermont	11.8%	0.0	$51,120
21	West Virginia	10.6%	-4.1	$43,420
22	Delaware	9.9%	-1.5	$54,370
23	New Hampshire	9.8%	-0.4	$53,950
24	Nebraska	9.6%	0.3	$48,250
25	Missouri	9.4%	-0.5	$47,820
26	Kansas	8.8%	2.0	$46,520
27	Wisconsin	8.7%	-5.4	$48,850
28	Indiana	8.2%	-2.7	$46,770
29	Alabama	8.0%	-2.2	$44,930
30	Wyoming	7.6%	0.2	$49,760
31	Kentucky	7.5%	-1.5	$44,020
32	Colorado	7.4%	0.8	$57,690
33	Mississippi	7.2%	2.7	$40,090
34	New Mexico	7.2%	-0.2	$47,040
35	Iowa	6.6%	-4.8	$47,330
36	Florida	6.4%	0.9	$47,750
37	North Dakota	6.2%	-1.1	$50,430
38	Oklahoma	6.0%	0.5	$45,620
39	Louisiana	5.9%	1.5	$44,170
40	Idaho	5.6%	-1.5	$44,890
41	Arizona	5.3%	-1.1	$50,930
42	Texas	4.9%	-0.6	$50,490
43	Arkansas	4.7%	0.7	$42,690
44	Georgia	4.7%	0.6	$49,620
45	Virginia	4.4%	-0.2	$56,740
46	Tennessee	4.3%	-0.3	$45,650
47	South Dakota	4.3%	-1.3	$42,920
48	Utah	3.6%	-2.9	$49,420
49	North Carolina	3.1%	0.0	$48,550
50	South Carolina	2.9%	-1.7	$44,380

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.