Executive Summary

In this report the role of trade unions in the United States is compared with those in eighteen other OECD countries using micro-data at the level of the individual. The main findings are as follows. 1. The declines in union density experienced in the US in the last thirty years are not typical of the OECD. 2. There are a many similarities across countries in who belongs to a union. 3. The union-nonunion wage differential in the US is approximately 15%, which has remained roughly constant over time. Unions in most other countries appear to raise wages by less. 4. Unions reduce total hours of work. The size of the effect appears to be relatively small in the US. 1In this report the role of trade unions in the United States is compared and contrasted with those in other OECD countries. The proportion of workers represented by unions fell dramatically in the US in the 1970s and 1980s and to a lesser extent in the 1990s. There are only a few other countries-- Japan, Austria and the United Kingdom are the main examples-- where this picture is replicated. There are quite a few countries where union density has actually grown harply ove