Abstract
AbstractUsing data on nearly 2 million respondents from the United States and Europe, we show the partial correlation between union membership and employee job satisfaction is positive and statistically significant. This runs counter to findings in the seminal work of Freeman and Borjas in the 1970s. For the United States, we show the association between union membership and job satisfaction switched from negative to positive in the 2000s. Cohorts with positive union effects over time come to dominate those with negative effects. The negative association between membership and job satisfaction is apparent in cohorts born before the 1960s but turns positive for those born between the 1960s and 1990s. Analyses for Europe since the 2000s confirm the positive association between union membership and worker well‐being is apparent elsewhere. Panel estimates for the United Kingdom also find a positive relation between union membership and job satisfaction. A positive union association with other aspects of worker well‐being including life satisfaction, happiness and trust is apparent in cross‐sectional data for Europe. Union members are also less likely to be stressed, worried, depressed, sad or lonely. The findings have important implications for our understanding of trade unionism.
Highlights
Ever since the seminal work of Freeman (1978) and Borjas (1979), economists have known that trade union membership is negatively correlated with job satisfaction
We present some results on job satisfaction from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and Understanding Society (USoc)
We find positive correlations between union membership and worker well-being across a range of metrics, both in the United States and Europe since the turn of the century
Summary
Ever since the seminal work of Freeman (1978) and Borjas (1979), economists have known that trade union membership is negatively correlated with job satisfaction. Bryson and Davies (2019) find the negative association between union membership and job satisfaction over the period 1991–2008 persists with the introduction of person fixed effects These mixed results are reflected in Laroche’s (2016) meta-analysis of 59 studies and 235 estimates. Van der Meer’s (2019) study using European Social Survey sweep 5 (2010) data presents more nuanced results He finds a positive partial correlation between union membership and job satisfaction in the United Kingdom and Ireland, union presence at the workplace is negatively associated with job satisfaction and, when combined, the coefficients for union membership and presence are negative and significant. That union workers have higher levels of happiness and lower levels of stress than non-union workers, and that this is true around the world in the years since the Great Recession, runs contrary to what was previously found
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