Issue Commentary

08/30/02 – Labor Day: Fewer and Fewer Labor Un⁠i⁠on Members Share ⁠t⁠he H⁠i⁠s⁠t⁠ory

By: The James Madison Institute / 2002

As our nation prepares to celebrate Labor Day 2002, a day created by the labor union movement in 1882, a few facts have come across my desk. First and foremost, union membership is at its lowest level in 60 years. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, only 13.5 percent of wage and salary workers were union members last year and that number continues its five-decade slide as more and more American workers find that they are better off without a union.