Seven Bottom-Ranking States For 2005-2015 Private-Sector Job Growth All Lack Right to Work Laws

From 2005 to 2015, total private-sector, nonfarm employment increased by 15.4% in Right to Work states, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. That increase is nearly 50% greater than the aggregate percentage gain for forced-dues states. Image: AP Photo/Charles Krupa/File
From 2005 to 2015, total private-sector, nonfarm employment increased by 15.4% in Right to Work states, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. That increase is nearly 50% greater than the aggregate percentage gain for forced-dues states. Image: AP Photo/Charles Krupa/File

On Wednesday, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) issued its initial estimates for total 2015 private-sector, nonfarm employment in the 50 states.

The latest BEA jobs data show, as such data long have done, a wide advantage for states that protect employees from being fired for refusal to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union over states where the law permits such unjust firings.

Nationwide, private-sector, nonfarm employment as reported by the BEA grew by 11.9% nationwide from 2005 to 2015. Historically, this was an anemic gain. However, states that protect employees from being fired for refusal to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union typically fared far better than the rest.

All of the top four, and eight of the top 10, states for 2005-2015 private-sector employment growth were Right to Work for the entire decade. Meanwhile, the seven bottom-ranking states for employment growth — Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia — all lacked Right to Work protections until this year. (See the first link below for more information. West Virginia became the 26th Right to Work state in February. Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, which adopted Right to Work laws from 2012 to 2015, are excluded.)

Overall, BEA-reported, private-sector, nonfarm employment in Right to Work states grew by 15.4% from 2005 to 2015. That’s 48% above the average for forced-unionism states, and 29% above the national average.

Faster growth in jobs and income is clearly a key reason why inflation-adjusted expenditures on housing, health care, food, clothing, cars, gas, and other services and goods are rising far more rapidly in Right to Work states than in forced-unionism states. New and revised BEA data issued early this year showed that, from 2005 to 2015, real personal consumption expenditures grew by 24.3% in the 22 states that were Right to Work the whole time. That’s 60% greater real PCE growth than what was experienced in the aggregate by the 25 states that still allowed forced unionization as of 2015.

The hard, objective data from the Commerce Department help show why S.391 and H.R.612 are extraordinarily important pieces of legislation.

Respectively introduced by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), these two measures, otherwise known as the National Right to Work Act, would simply repeal all federal labor-law provisions that currently authorize compulsory union dues and fee payments as a condition of employment.

When forced-dues repeal becomes law, private-sector employees in all 50 states will have the freedom to choose as individuals whether or not to join or pay dues to a union, without facing job loss as a consequence of their decision.

Total Full-Time and Part-Time Employment by Industry (SA25, SA25N)

Personal consumption expenditures