Sunday, November 24, 2013

Right-To-Work Fallacy

When reading up on the Taft-Hartley act and its creation of the Right-to-work state I began to wonder, where do the states that are right-to-work fall in a list of the poverty rate? I also wanted to know where high union membership states fell on the poverty list.  

Before you continue reading I will say I'm not mathematician or statistician so I tried to keep the numbers simple. I know numbers can be picked and choosed to match one's argument but I tried to keep it to within the scope of the above question. 

There are 24 right-to-work states today. 15 are in the bottom half of states by poverty rate. Even worse, in the bottom 11 states by poverty rate, 9 are RTW. Of the bottom 10 states by poverty rate, only West Virginia and New Mexico are not RTW states, but are 18 and 35 in union membership respectively. 5 states have right-to-work in their state constitution, 4 of them are in the bottom 10 by poverty rate.  The average place on the poverty list for a RTW state is 30.85.

Now I acknowledge this isn't a perfect argument. Michigan just joined the RTW list in 2012, so the true effects of RTW haven't set in yet. 3 of the top 10 states by union membership are in the bottom 25 by poverty rate. Not one top 10 union membership states are in the bottom 10 for poverty rate. The average place on the poverty list for a top 10 union state is 18.5

By contrast the lowest 10 states by union membership have 5 states in the bottom 10 for poverty rate and are an average 33.8 on the poverty list. 

Right to Work States
StateNumber by Poverty %Bottom 10 Union %?Poverty %
Utah7419.2
Virginia8479.2
Nebraska109.5
Idaho129.9
Nevada1710.6
Wyoming1810.6
Florida*1911.1
North Dakota2011.2
Iowa2211.3
South Dakota264411.8
Michigan2712
Kansas3112.5
Indiana3212.6
North Carolina345013.2
Gerogia374914.4
Tennessee404215
South Carolina414815
Arizona*4215.2
Oklahoma*4415.6
Arkansas*4515.9
Texas464616.2
Alabama4716.7
Louisiana494518.3
Mississippi*504320.1
 Average30.5813.2    
*Constitutional Amendment for Right-to-Work                                                            Poverty rate is 0.6% above national average.
Lowest 10 States in Union Membership
State# by union %# by poverty %Poverty rate
Utah4179.2
Tennessee424015.0
Mississippi435020.1
South Dakota442611.8
Louisiana454918.3
Texas464616.2
South Carolina474115.0
Virginia4889.2
Georiga493714.4
North Carolina503413.1
 Average33.814.2%
Poverty rate is 1.6% above national average.

Top 10 States in Union Membership
State# by union %# by poverty %Poverty rate
New York13814.5
Hawaii258.6
Alaska31310.0
Washington41510.2
Michigan52712.0
California63513.2
New Jersey726.8
Connecticut899.7
Nevada91710.6
Illinois102411.5
Average18.510.7%
Poverty rate is 1.9 % below the national average.

References
“Right to Work Law” Retrieved on November 24, 2013 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law (November 20, 2013)
“Union Affiliation by US State” Retrieved on November 24, 2013 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_affiliation_by_U.S._state (June 20, 2013)
“List of US States by Poverty Rate” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_poverty_rate (July 12, 2013)