Unions Are Good For Kids!

October 21, 2015 by Andrew Baker

Intergenerational income mobility is relatively low in the U.S.  For example, a U.S. child born in the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution has a 7.5 percent probability of reaching the top 20 percent as an adult, compared to 11.7 percent in Denmark and 13.4 percent in Canada.  How to improve on this?  More union members!

A recent report issued by the Center for American Progress, “Bargaining for the American Dream,” demonstrates a “strong relationship between union membership and intergenerational mobility,” and, more specifically, “areas with higher union membership demonstrate greater mobility for low-income children.”  The effects are even more pronounced for children who grow up in union households.  Furthermore, the relationship is at least as strong as the relationship between mobility and high school dropout rates – a factor that is generally recognized as one of the most important correlates of economic mobility.

The report also notes that children who grow up in union households have better outcomes.  “For example, children of non-college-educated fathers earn 28 percent more if their father was in a labor union.”

The complete report can be found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/279544921/Bargaining-for-the-American-Dream.

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