U.S. News: Work Laws Don't Have Huge Effect On Wages
Right-to-work laws don't appear to have a significant impact on wages, though data are hard to come by.</br></br>In October, the most recent month for which state-level data are available, the average unemployment rate in right-to-work states was 6.9%. For the other 27 states the average unemployment rate was 7.6%. Thirteen of the 23 right-to-work states had unemployment rates below the national rate of 7.9% in October.</br></br>Wages are generally lower in right-to-work states. Private-sector employees in right-to-work states earned $737.81 a week on average over the past 12 months, nearly 10% less than in states without such laws. But cause and effect are unclear, in part because most states with right-to-work laws passed the legislation decades ago, making it difficult to determine how the policies affect wages.</br></br>Some economists say when differences in costs of living are taken into account, wages are roughly the same, or even higher in right-to-work states.</br></br>A study by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, an antiunion research group, found that employees in right-to-work states earned an average of $675 a week, compared with $660 in non-right-to-work states. But many studies showing higher wages in right-to-work states ignore relevant factors, such as how business-friendly a state is, that may be the real driver of wages, economists said.