Popularity of unions remains near record highs, and with good reason: the collective power of union membership helps members achieve higher wages, better benefits and working conditions, and the power to enforce their rights. These benefits are particularly important for women in the workforce. Women who are union members experience more economic security for themselves and their families than nonunion members, including higher and more equal wages. For women of color, who face even larger pay gaps, union membership provides particularly meaningful wage improvements. Union members also have greater access to benefits—such as paid leave and sick days, health insurance, and retirement benefits—and protections against getting fired without cause.

The data in this factsheet is based on union density, or the rate at which working people ages 16 and over have joined unions as dues-paying union members. It does not reflect the number of workers who are represented by a union who are not union members. To be a union member, employees must pay dues.

Overall, women make up almost half of union members (46.5%), and union membership is especially important for women. Yet, because of anti-union tactics by employers and shortfalls in public policy that leave the right to organize insufficiently protected, union membership rates generally have declined over the past 20 years, and membership rates for women have gone from 11.1% in 2004 to 9.5% in 2024. During the same time period, union membership among Black women declined from 13.6% to 10.9%, as well as for Asian women from 11.1% to 9.1%, and for Latinas from 9.9% to 8.9%. And union membership for white women decreased from 10.7% to 9.2%. While union membership rates have declined, polling shows that interest in joining a union has only increased during the same period.

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