According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 17.8 percent (81,000) of Rhode Island private and public sector workers were union members in 2012. This represented an over-the-year increase of four-tenths of a percentage point, or 2,000 workers. The number of union members were at its highest level since 2003 and accounted for the largest percentage of employed workers since 2009 (17.9%).

Nationally, the union membership rate was 11.3 percent in 2012, down from 11.8 percent in 2011 and well below the 20.1 percent measured in 1983. Among the fifty states, Rhode Island reported the fifth highest union membership rate, trailing New York (23.2%), Alaska (22.4%), Hawaii (21.6%) and Washington (18.5%). North Carolina (2.9%), Arkansas (3.2%) and South Carolina (3.3%) had the lowest union membership rates in 2012.

Regionally, the Ocean State had the highest union membership rate in New England, followed by Massachusetts (14.4%), Connecticut (14.0%) and Maine (11.5%). Vermont (10.7%) and New Hampshire (10.5%) both had union membership rates below the national average.

Union members and workers whose jobs are covered by a union or employee association contract represented 12.5 percent of the nation’s wage and salary workers and 18.4 percent of Rhode Island’s wage and salary workers.

* 1983 is the first year for which comparable union data are available.
Data included within this report is derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of households conducted by the Bureau of Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Union membership data refers to members of a labor union or an employee association similar to a union. Union representation data includes union members as well as workers who report no union affiliation, but whose jobs are covered by a union or an employee association contract. For more information on CPS data, please visit www.bls.gov/cps.