As Michigan seeks to recover from the Great Recession while addressing the additional problems generated by contraction in the auto industry, some advocates are promoting the idea that the state’s economy can be turned around through adoption of a “right-to-work” law.
Large sums of money have been devoted to backing so-called “right-to-work” bills in numerous state legislatures.
Lobbyists for these misleadingly named laws claim that they significantly improve both job growth and the wages people earn.
The evidence shows that these claims are completely without scientific foundation.
The most rigorous scientific analysis shows the exact opposite is true:
• Right-to-work laws have no impact in boosting
economic growth: research shows that there is no
relationship between right-to-work laws and state
unemployment rates, state per capita income, or
state job growth.
• Right-to-work laws have no signifi cant impact on
attracting employers to a particular state; surveys of
employers show that “right to work” is a minor or
non-existent factor in location decisions, and that
higher-wage, hi-tech fi rms in particular generally prefer
free-bargaining states.
• Right-to-work laws lower wages—for both union and
nonunion workers alike—by an average of $1,500 per
year, after accounting for the cost of living in each state.
• Right-to-work laws also decrease the likelihood that
employees get either health insurance or pensions
through their jobs—again, for both union and nonunion
workers.
You can download and read the full report Here
As someone who lives in a “right to work” state I have to tell you what that really means. It’s true meaning is you have the right to work for for whatever your employer can get away with paying you (as little as possible), be treated in any manner they choose and be fired for any or no reason! Don’t you want to live and work in a state to be like that?
right