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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).
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.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Hawaii and New York had highest union membership rates, the Carolinas the lowest, in 2019 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/hawaii-and-new-york-had-highest-union-membership-rates-the-carolinas-the-lowest-in-2019.htm (visited October 31, 2024).