Across the country, more workers are forming unions than ever before - in fact, nearly a quarter of all American workers that formed unions in the last year joined SEIU. Our members know that by working together, we can improve both the quality of services we provide and the communities in which we live.

Here's a snapshot of the "union difference" across the American workforce, highlighting facts from research recently conducted by the Center for American Progress, The Bureau of Labor Statistics, UC Berkeley Labor Center, Labor Project for Working Families and the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

13.7 percent of all U.S. workers are unionized--up from 13.4 percent in 2007.

In 2008, nearly half a million workers joined unions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this is the largest on record increase since 1983, the first year of comparable data.

Salary and Benefit Difference Between Unionized and Non-Unionized Workers

In nearly every occupational category among full-time wage and salary workers, union members earn more than non-union workers. By comparing the wages of workers within occupational groups, the union difference is clear. For example, for workers employed in the public sector, the difference in salary amounts to roughly $150 more a week--approximately $600 more a month--for union vs. non-union.

The overall averages are even more striking. Between 2004 and 2007, unionized worker wages were an average of 11.3 percentage points higher ($2.26 more an hour) than non-unionized workers. Among full-time wage and salary workers in 2008, union members had median weekly earnings of $886, while those who were not represented by unions had median weekly earnings of $691. That's a monthly difference in salary of nearly $800 for union members vs. non-union.

Healthcare

Union workers nationwide are:

• 28.2 percent more likely to be covered by employer-provided health insurance
• 53.9 percent more likely to have employer-provided pensions.
• Companies with 30 percent or more unionized workers are five times as likely to have their entire family health insurance premium paid for in comparison to companies with no unionized workers. Even when unionized employees are required to pay part of their family insurance premium, they pay a much lower share of the premium than do non-unionized workers.
• 46 percent of unionized workers receive full pay while on sick leave, versus only 29 percent of non-union workers.

Women

• Make up 45 percent of union workers--and by 2020, women will be the majority of the unionized workforce.
• Unionization raises female workers' wages by $2.00/hour (or 11.2 percent)
• 19 percent more likely to have employer paid health insurance (joining a union has a much larger effect on a woman's probability of having health insurance than a four-year college degree (8.4 percent increase).
• 24.7 percent more likely to have pension.

Low-wage Workers

• Unionization raises the wages of the typical low-wage worker (one in the 10th percentile) by 20.6 percent.

Latinos

• 10.7 percent of unionized workers are Latino (up from 9.8% in 2007)
• Latinos represent the largest growth rate of unionized workers--in 2008, more than 140,000 Hispanics became union members.
• Unionization raises Latino workers' wages by $2.60/hour (17.1 percent)
• 26 percent more likely to have employer paid health insurance
• 27 percent more likely to have pension
• Low-wage Latinos who belong to a union are 41 percent more likely to have employer-paid health insurance

African Americans

• 54 percent of all full-time Black workers in the United States receive low wages, working for $12.87 an hour or less
• Unionization raises African American workers' wages by $2.00/hour (11.2 percent)

Without Unions, Wages Haven't Come Close to Keeping up with Productivity or Inflation

Prior to the 1980s, productivity gains and workers' wages moved in tandem. But from 1980 to 2008, nationwide worker productivity grew by 75.0 percent, while workers' inflation-adjusted average wages increased by only 22.6 percent--which means that workers were compensated for only 30.2 percent of their productivity gains.

If American workers were rewarded for 100 percent of their increases in labor productivity between 1980 and 2008, as they were during the middle part of the 20th century, average wages would be $28.53 per hour--42.7 percent higher than the average real wage in 2008.