%0 Journal Article
%T Organized Labor¡¯s Check on Rising Economic Inequality in the U.S. States
%A Laura C. Bucci
%J State Politics & Policy Quarterly
%@ 1946-1607
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1532440018760198
%X Recent demonstrations of growing economic inequality in the United States raise normative concerns about the political representation of all but the very wealthiest citizens. Building on existing cross-national work on the roles of unions in welfare states, I provide evidence that organized labor, as a political institution, limits unequal income distributions in the U.S. states. The states are useful to our understanding of labor¡¯s influence on inequality as states differ in their acceptance of labor unions, base levels of inequality, political preferences, industries, and levels of development but are all nested within a single overarching national framework. Over the 39-year period examined, states where unions maintain more members remain more equal within the labor market and after redistribution via government transfer. These effects persist after accounting for state-level policy, demography, and economic conditions. However, states where union membership has the largest influence on inequality have also seen growing attempts to reduce unionization rates. Overall, I find that unions are still able to limit the growth of economic inequality in spite of declining levels of union membership
%K interest groups
%K labor
%K parties and interest groups
%K poverty/inequality
%K public policy
%K ideology
%K public opinion
%K political economy
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1532440018760198