Do higher minimum wages decrease union membership in minimum-wage-intensive industries?

Why Do Labor Unions Advocate for Minimum Wage Increases?

“…To do so, we consider precisely which groups of workers become more likely to be members of unions following minimum wage changes. While the overall relationship between minimum wages and union membership is positive, we find, consistent with evidence in Clemens and Strain (2023a), that minimum wage increases reduce union membership among the minimum wage's most direct beneficiaries. That is, consistent with free-riding, low-skilled workers in food service and retail appear to treat the minimum wage as a substitute for the services of unions.…”

“…The decline in this group's union membership thus appears inconsistent with theories that view membership and payment of dues as a form of reciprocity. Relative to estimates from prior work (Clemens and Strain, 2023a), these estimates show that the decline in union membership among young individuals is concentrated among teenagers, and that indeed for the teenage population the estimated decline is statistically strong whether the specification incorporates controls for 26 macroeconomic conditions or not.…”

“…One possibility is that policy advocacy may bolster an interest group's cause by enhancing its public image. In complementary work (Clemens and Strain, 2023b), we find that recent minimum wage increases have shifted news coverage of organized labor, making it more likely to connect organized labor with the minimum wage, which is popular among members of the public.…”

“…Specifically, we focus on the food-service and retail industries. We present this analysis, which moderately refines analysis from prior work (Clemens and Strain, 2023a), in Table 8. Panel A presents estimates of the impact of minimum wage increases on these individuals' union membership rates and panel B presents estimates of the impact on hourly wages.…”

“…A question of interest for future work is the question of what mechanisms shape the effectiveness of using policy advocacy as part of a strategy for recruiting members to an 29 organization's cause. In a companion paper (Clemens and Strain, 2023b) Clemens, Hobbs, andStrain (2018), Vaghul andZipperer (2021), and a number of complementary sources. The table lists states that enacted minimum wage changes over the course of our primary analysis sample.…”