Unions strengthen workers’ voices, allowing them to create better and safer workplaces for all. Together in a union with your coworkers, you won’t have to hope that bosses and corporations will do what’s right, you can hold them accountable to do so through your union and contract. With a voice on the job and a seat at the table, workers can start living instead of stressing about making a living. That’s the heart of the difference, the union difference.

Here are just some of the material benefits that union members have fought for and won:

• Union workers earn about 15-20 percent more than nonunion workers in similar jobs.¹
• Union-represented workers in service occupations make 52.1% more in wages than their nonunion counterparts on average. These occupations are disproportionately held by women.²
• Union workers are more likely to be covered by employer-provided health insurance. More than nine in 10 workers covered by a union contract (94%) have access to employer-sponsored health benefits³
• 56% of union members have access to vision benefits (24% of non-union), 74% have access to dental benefits (50% non-union), and 93% have access to prescription drug benefits (67% non-union)⁴
• Union workers also have greater access to paid sick days. Nine in 10 workers covered by a union contract (91%) have access to paid sick days, compared with 73% of nonunion workers.⁵
• 91% of workers covered by a union contract get paid vacation and paid holidays, whereas only 78% of nonunion workers get paid vacation and 79% get paid holidays.⁶
• Union contracts typically have provisions that require employers to have a process-informed, documented, performance-related reason for disciplining or dismissing a worker (“just cause”) as opposed to workers without that provision who can be terminated or fired for almost any reason, or no reason at all.
• Ninety-four percent of union workers participate in a retirement plan (of any kind), compared with 67% of nonunion workers.⁷

It’s time we all come together as a union and keep making the difference. Workers with a union have the strength and power to demand change and justice in and out of their workplace. Unions have demonstrated your zip code, gender or race should not have a say in what you deserve as a human being.

¹ https://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/bitstream/88435/dsp01gx41mm54w/3/620.pdf
² https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-help-reduce-disparities-and-strengthen-our-democracy/#_note9
³ https://www.epi.org/publication/why-unions-are-good-for-workers-especially-in-a-crisis-like-covid-19-12-policies-that-would-boost-worker-rights-safety-and-wages/
⁴ https://www.afscme.org/difference
⁵ https://www.epi.org/publication/why-unions-are-good-for-workers-especially-in-a-crisis-like-covid-19-12-policies-that-would-boost-worker-rights-safety-and-wages/
⁶ https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-help-reduce-disparities-and-strengthen-our-democracy/#_note16
⁷ https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-help-reduce-disparities-and-strengthen-our-democracy/#_note20