Union Coverage: Percentage of Workers Whose Wages

Workers Belonging to a Union

Are Determined by Union Bargaining

Austria

37%

France

9%

Germany

26%

Japan

22%

Netherlands 25%

Spain

11.3%

Sweden

82%

United

Kingdom

United

States

29%

11.1%

99%

95%

63%

23%

82%

81%

92%

35%

12.5%

TABLE 14.8 International Comparisons of Union Membership and Coverage in 2012 (Source, CIA World Factbook,

retrieved from www.cia.gov)

These international differences in union membership suggest a fourth reason for the decline of union

membership in the United States: perhaps U.S. laws are less friendly to the formation of unions than such laws

in other countries. The close connection between union membership and a friendly legal environment is
342 14 • Labor Markets and Income

apparent in the history of U.S. unions. The great rise in union membership in the 1930s followed the passage
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