Table 5

Collective bargaining rights can vary by occupation: Local government workers’ collective bargaining rights and union density by state and occupational group

State Agency fee? Teachers Police Firefighters Misc. Union density
AL No P P P P 33%
AK Yes R R R R 53%
AZ No P P P P 23%
AR No P P P P 14%
CA Yes R R R R 70%
CO No P P P P 32%
CT Yes R R R R 80%
DE Yes R R R R 42%
DC Yes R R R R 45%
FL No R R R R 37%
GA No B B P B 14%
HI Yes R R R R 71%
ID No R P R P 24%
IL Yes R R R R 65%
IN No R P P P 33%
IA No P or R P or R P or R P or R 35%
KS No R P P P 21%
KY Yes P R R P 30%
LA No P P P P 18%
ME Yes R R R R 61%
MD Yes R P P P 61%
MA Yes R R R R 73%
MI No R R R R 60%
MN Yes R R R R 61%
MS No B P P P 10%
MO Yes R R R R 34%
MT Yes R R R R 55%
NE No R R R R 36%
NV No R R R R 48%
NH Yes R R R R 59%
NJ Yes R R R R 74%
NM Yes R R R R 22%
NY Yes R R R R 79%
NC No B B B B 5%
ND No R P P P 26%
OH Yes R R R R 57%
OK No R R R P 26%
OR Yes R R R R 65%
PA Yes R R R R 63%
RI Yes R R R R 78%
SC No B B B B 7%
SD No R R R R 27%
TN No R B B B 18%
TX No B R R B 18%
UT No P P R P 23%
VT Yes R R R R 65%
VA No B B B B 19%
WA Yes R R R R 62%
WV No P P P P 35%
WI No B R R B 33%
WY No P P R P 16%

Notes: “Agency fee?” indicates whether unions were able to collect agency fees before Janus. “B” indicates states where local government workers were banned from engaging in collective bargaining over compensation in 2015–2019. “P” indicates states where employers are permitted to engage in collective bargaining with local government workers but there was no statewide mandate in 2015–2019. “R” indicates states where employers were required to engage in collective bargaining with local government workers in 2015–2019. Miscellaneous workers are local government workers who are not teachers or teaching assistants, police, or firefighters. Union density is the share of full-time local government workers ages 18–64 who belong to a union based on pooled 2015–2019 data. In most states, collective bargaining rights for local government workers as described in this table did not change in 2015–2019. The exception is Iowa, where local government entities were required to engage in collective bargaining over compensation (broadly defined) before 2017, but are only permitted to do so since 2017. There remains a duty to bargain in Iowa over base wages, but growth in base wages is capped at the rate of inflation. Since bargaining exclusively over base wages gives workers little say in their total compensation, this is not considered collective bargaining for the purposes of this analysis. Unlike Wisconsin, however, which also restricted the scope of bargaining to base wages for and capped wage growth to inflation, Iowa continued to allow voluntary bargaining over other forms of compensation.

Source: Authors’ analysis of U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey microdata, pooled years 2015–2019; Sanes and Schmitt 2014; Valletta and Freeman 1988; Rueben 1996; Dippel and Sauers 2019; NCTQ 2019; NEA 2020; García and Han 2021; Frandsen and Webb 2017; McNicholas et al. 2020; Brannick 2019; and Commonwealth Foundation 2021. The source for whether unions were able to collect agency fees before Janus is Schneiderman et al. 2018.

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