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Hawaii and New York had highest union membership rates, the Carolinas the lowest, in 2019
January 27, 2020
In 2019, 28 states and the District of Columbia had union membership rates below the U.S. average of 10.3 percent. Twenty-one states had rates above the U.S. average, and one state had the same rate. Two states had union membership rates over 20.0 percent in 2019: Hawaii (23.5 percent) and New York (21.0 percent).
Union membership rates of employed wage and salary workers by state, 2019 annual averages
State
Union membership rate
Employed union members
Total employed wage and salary workers
Hawaii
23.5%
135,000
574,000
New York
21.0
1,732,000
8,253,000
Washington
18.8
638,000
3,393,000
Rhode Island
17.4
83,000
475,000
Alaska
17.1
48,000
282,000
New Jersey
15.7
642,000
4,094,000
California
15.2
2,504,000
16,485,000
Nevada
14.6
201,000
1,379,000
Connecticut
14.5
244,000
1,680,000
Oregon
14.4
255,000
1,772,000
Minnesota
13.7
364,000
2,662,000
Illinois
13.6
771,000
5,658,000
Michigan
13.6
589,000
4,323,000
Massachusetts
12.0
406,000
3,397,000
Pennsylvania
12.0
676,000
5,642,000
Ohio
11.9
610,000
5,127,000
Maine
11.8
69,000
588,000
Maryland
11.3
330,000
2,912,000
Vermont
11.2
33,000
290,000
Missouri
11.1
297,000
2,661,000
Montana
10.5
46,000
437,000
New Hampshire
10.3
69,000
677,000
West Virginia
10.2
72,000
704,000
District of Columbia
9.3
34,000
361,000
Colorado
9.0
237,000
2,631,000
Delaware
8.7
38,000
432,000
Kansas
8.7
112,000
1,280,000
Alabama
8.5
173,000
2,041,000
Nebraska
8.4
75,000
894,000
Indiana
8.3
249,000
3,007,000
Wisconsin
8.1
218,000
2,698,000
Kentucky
8.0
144,000
1,786,000
Wyoming
7.3
18,000
243,000
New Mexico
7.1
58,000
813,000
Iowa
6.3
97,000
1,543,000
Mississippi
6.3
70,000
1,105,000
Florida
6.2
551,000
8,827,000
Oklahoma
6.2
96,000
1,554,000
North Dakota
6.0
21,000
356,000
Arizona
5.7
174,000
3,028,000
South Dakota
5.6
22,000
395,000
Louisiana
5.3
94,000
1,784,000
Arkansas
5.2
62,000
1,200,000
Idaho
4.9
37,000
764,000
Tennessee
4.6
135,000
2,947,000
Utah
4.4
62,000
1,409,000
Georgia
4.1
180,000
4,422,000
Texas
4.0
497,000
12,334,000
Virginia
4.0
156,000
3,881,000
North Carolina
2.3
102,000
4,396,000
South Carolina
2.2
47,000
2,140,000
Eight states had union membership rates below 5.0 percent in 2019. South Carolina (2.2 percent) and North Carolina (2.3 percent) had the lowest rates. The next lowest rates were in Texas and Virginia (4.0 percent each).
Over half of the 14.6 million union members in the United States lived in just seven states (California, 2.5 million; New York, 1.7 million; Illinois, 0.8 million; Pennsylvania, 0.7 million; and New Jersey, Ohio, and Washington, 0.6 million each), though these states accounted for only about one-third of wage and salary employment nationally.
These data are from the Current Population Survey. To learn more, see "Union Members — 2019." The union membership rate is the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions. The numbers exclude all self-employed workers.
United States Department of Labor
