Aug. 30, 2022
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As Americans prepare to celebrate the Labor Day weekend, U.S. labor unions are enjoying a rebound in their public image. With unions recently scoring victories at major U.S. corporations from Staten Island, New York, to Kansas City, Missouri, the National Labor Relations Board reported a 57% increase in election petitions filed during the first six months of fiscal year 2021.
News reporting like yours is critical to the world's understanding of the latest events in the U.S. labor movement.
We're here to help and have a variety of resources available to enrich your coverage through historical findings in the U.S. since 1935, as well as insights into workers' experiences here and around the world.
How do Americans feel about unions?
Seventy-one percent of Americans approve of labor unions -- the highest since 1965.
Gallup's latest measure, from August 2022, finds that 71% of Americans approve of labor unions. This is within the margin of error of the 68% recorded last year, but it is technically the highest approval rating for unions recorded since 1965.
Support for labor unions was highest in the 1950s, when three in four Americans said they approved. Support only dipped below the 50% mark once, in 2009, but has gradually recovered in the 13 years since.
About one in six Americans (16%) live in a union household.
Nine percent of Americans report that they themselves are a union member, and another 7% say they are not a member but someone else in their household is. The 16% of adults who in total report there is at least one union member in their household is within the 14% to 21% range recorded since 2001.
Americans have been mixed on how much influence they would like labor unions to have.
In 2018, 39% of U.S. adults said they would like to see labor unions have "more influence," exceeding the 29% who would prefer unions to have "less influence." Twenty-six percent said they wanted unions to have the "same amount" of influence.
While Gallup's 2017 to 2018 polling recorded slight preferences for labor unions having more (rather than less) influence, attitudes tilted negative from 2009 to 2012.
Most do not express confidence in organized labor as an institution.
Twenty-eight percent of U.S. adults say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in organized labor. Most Americans have not expressed confidence in organized labor in Gallup's trend dating back to 1973, ranging from lows of 19% in 2007 and 2009 to a high of 39% in 1977.
Americans have usually considered unions as helpful to the U.S. economy.
From 1997 to 2016, Americans were generally positive about the effect unions have on the U.S. economy, with more saying they "mostly help" the economy than "mostly hurt" it. In 2009 and 2011, attitudes were reversed, with the plurality of Americans saying unions mostly hurt the economy. However, by 2016, the last time Gallup polled this question, a slim majority (52%) said unions were mostly helpful.
Most Americans view unions as helpful to union members themselves, but they see them as mostly hurtful to workers who are not members of unions.
In the past, majorities have said they would vote for right-to-work or "open shop" laws.
Gallup has polled on right-to-work or open shop laws twice, describing them as laws saying workers have the right to hold their jobs regardless of whether they join a labor union. In both polls, majorities of Americans said they would vote for such laws (62% in 1957 and 71% in 2014). In these same polls, most respondents agreed that no American should be required to join any private organization, like a labor union, against their will.
And how do U.S. workers feel about unions?
Many U.S. union members value their membership.
Four in 10 labor union members say their membership is "extremely important" to them, compared with just one in 10 who say it is "not important at all."
Pay and benefits, employee rights and representation are the top reasons workers join a union.
When asked to select their top reasons for joining a union, better pay and benefits (65%) as well as employee representation and employee rights (57%) are named by majorities of union members.
Many also name job security (42%) and better pensions and retirement (34%). About one in four say that improving the work environment (25%) and fairness and equality at work (23%) are among their most important reasons for joining a union.
Lesser-named reasons include health and safety (9%) and unions' positive effect on the country (5%).
Most nonunion workers are "not interested at all" in becoming union members.
While 11% of nonunion workers in the U.S. are "extremely interested" in joining a labor union, most nonunion workers (58%) say they are "not interested at all."
Just 6% of nonunion workers say that someone in their organization has reached out about forming or joining a union.
Nonunion workers are more engaged than union workers.
Employees who are not members of a labor union are substantially more engaged at work (33%) than are employees who are union members (27%).
About one in four union members are actively disengaged (24%), compared with 17% among nonunion workers.
Union members are less satisfied than nonunion members with key aspects of their jobs.
A Gallup analysis of data from 2011 to 2015 found that union employees were significantly less likely than nonunion employees to say they were "completely satisfied" with six of 13 aspects of their job. These include workplace safety, recognition for accomplishments, flexibility of hours and job security. In only one job aspect, employer-provided health insurance, were union workers significantly more likely than nonunion workers to say they were completely satisfied.
Gallup Snapshot: The Collective Bargaining Debates of 2011
In 2011, more than a dozen state legislatures passed laws restricting collective bargaining rights, prompting protests in state capitols. These debates took place on the heels of labor unions' lowest approval ratings in Gallup's history.
Gallup polls at the time found the public with mixed views on unions and how state governments should approach their rights.
Many Americans in 2011 felt labor unions had too much power.
Respondents were more likely to say labor unions had "too much" power (43%) than "not enough" (24%).
The public offered split decisions on the impact of unions and restricting collective bargaining.
Americans were mixed on whether unions were generally more helpful (45%) or more harmful (46%) to state governments. Two in three Democrats at the time viewed unions as more helpful, while two in three Republicans viewed them as more harmful.
Americans were divided on whether they favored (49%) or opposed (45%) changing state laws to limit the bargaining power of state employee unions as a means to balance state budgets.
They opposed Wisconsin's efforts to take away collective bargaining rights, however, and sided with state labor unions over governors in similar disputes.
Most Americans (61%) opposed a prominent effort made in 2011 by the Wisconsin legislature to take away some of the collective bargaining rights of most public unions, including the state teachers' union.
They sided with state employee labor unions (48%) over governors (39%) in disputes over collective bargaining policies and state budgets.
Many viewed labor unions' influence as waning after their battles with state legislatures.
By summer's end, a new high of 55% of Americans saw labor unions' influence as weakening.
Findings From the State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report
Gallup's annual State of the Global Workplace report represents the collective voice of the global employee. In this edition, the pandemic and its aftershocks continued to disrupt the workplace. The heart of the global workplace is weak, but it's still beating.
Global employee vital signs -- engagement and wellbeing -- remain stable but not great.
Before the pandemic, employee engagement had been rising globally for nearly a decade -- but now, it's stagnant. With only 21% of employees engaged at work and 33% of employees thriving in their overall wellbeing, most would say that they don't find their work meaningful, don't think their lives are going well or don't feel hopeful about their future.
Stress among the world's workers reached a new high -- again.
The world's employees are feeling even more stressed than they did in 2020 (the previous high). Forty-four percent of employees say they experienced stress during a lot of the previous day. While almost half of the world's workers feel the burden of stress, working women in the U.S. and Canada region are among the most stressed employees globally.
Europe and South Asia were hit particularly hard in 2021.
Employee wellbeing declined by five percentage points in both South Asia and Europe last year. Employees in South Asia had the lowest thriving percentage in the world, at 11%.
The job market made a remarkable recovery in the U.S. and Canada region -- but not elsewhere.
Forty-five percent of global employees in 2021 said now is a good time to find a job, up slightly from 2020 but lower than the record high of 55% in 2019.
The outlier on this question globally is the U.S. and Canada region, which leads at 71%, up 44 points from the previous year. The regions with the least promising job opportunities are the Commonwealth of Independent States (35%), Middle East and North Africa (28%) and East Asia (27%).
For all of its challenges, the U.S. and Canada region remains the most favorable region in the world to be an employee.
Even though employees in the U.S. and Canada region are some of the most worried and stressed in the world, they're also the most engaged.
The U.S. and Canada region is No. 2 for wellbeing and for posting the largest increase in wellbeing in 2021. Just over half of adults in this region say they are "living comfortably" on their household income (compared with 22% globally), and the job market in 2021 was exceptionally good compared with the rest of the world.
Read the State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report.
Read/Listen to additional analyses on U.S. and global labor:
Europe Gets Life Right, but Work Wrong: "No one feels better about life than Europeans. For 10 years in a row, European countries have topped the list of happiest places on Earth," says Gallup CEO Jon Clifton. "[But] Europeans are unhappier with their workplaces than anyone else in the world."
Are U.S. Labor Unions Making a Comeback? (The Gallup Podcast): Dr. Thomas A. Kochan, professor of management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and faculty member in the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research, and Dr. Harry C. Katz, professor of collective bargaining and director of the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at Cornell University, join the podcast to offer their expert insights on this "exciting and interesting moment" for organized labor in the U.S.
Is the 4 Day Work Week a Good Idea?: "Gallup found wellbeing differences between those with four day versus five day work weeks," says Jim Harter, chief scientist of workplace management and wellbeing at Gallup. "The percentage of full-time employees considered to be thriving was six percentage points higher for those in the four day group. Burnout was three points lower for four day workers -- but active disengagement was five points higher."
The Future of Unions: "The future of unions in this country remains to be determined. While a large majority of Americans approve of the idea of labor unions in general, relatively few workers are union members," says Gallup senior scientist Frank Newport.
The Gallup Vault: In one of Gallup's earliest polls, many Americans saw the New Deal as "too friendly" to the labor movement.
More from the Gallup Vault:
- 1937: The Nation's First Jobs Poll
- 1942: Americans Hailed Entrepreneurship in Paper Boys
- 1949: Easing Labor-Business Tensions Over Lunch
- 1969: A Sea Change in Support for Working Women
Keep these important resources on hand.
- Gallup historical trends on labor unions: This page contains U.S. public opinion trends on labor unions, dating as far back as 1936. Approval of labor unions, confidence in unions as an institution and more can be found here.
- Gallup content archives on labor unions: Access Gallup content on unions dating back to 2005, including all articles, Q&As, podcast interviews and more.
- State of the Global Workplace: This annual report represents the collective voice of employees around the world.
Want to talk? Our experts are available to speak with you.
"As massively disrupted workplaces continue to evolve into their next 'new normal,' leaders and managers need to attract, engage, develop and retain the talent they need for the future amid serious hiring, retention, and employee burnout challenges. But with unparalleled disruptions also comes great opportunity. We are closely monitoring how employees are experiencing their return to the office and what the future of hybrid and remote work will look like." -- Ben Wigert, Ph.D., Gallup's director of research and strategy, workplace management
"Gallup has measured support for labor unions since 1936, making it one of Gallup's oldest trends. Americans have mostly been supportive of unions historically, though approval dropped to a low of 48% in 2009. Since then, support has rebounded, and in 2021 was at levels last seen in the 1960s. The resurgence in union support is seen among Democrats, Republicans and independents alike." -- Jeff Jones, senior editor at Gallup
"After a decade of growth, now only one-third of U.S. -- and one in five global -- employees are engaged in their work and workplace. The best-run organizations have doubled or tripled the national and global figures. Employee engagement is a highly reliable predictor of team performance and employee retention across varying economic conditions." -- Jim Harter, Ph.D., Gallup's chief scientist of workplace management and wellbeing
Contact mediainquiry@gallup.com to schedule interviews with our experts.
