Workers in RTW states make $1,558 a year less

Earlier this year, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed into law so-called "right-to-work" (RTW) legislation that curbs collective bargaining rights. And a new report makes it clear how much it will cost workers there and in other RTW states.

Teamsters helped defeat RTW in West Virginia earlier this year.

An Economic Policy Institute (EPI) document notes that wages are 3.1 percent lower in states that impede union rights than they are in free bargaining ones. That's after taking cost of living, demographics and labor market characteristics into account. The result is that union and non-union workers alike in RTW states make $1,558 less each year.

Will Kimball, the report's co-author and an EPI research assistant, says in a press release:

Policymakers who are concerned by the three-and-a-half decades of wage stagnation that have plagued American workers should be trying to strengthen unions. Collective bargaining is a clear way to raise wages, and right to work laws undercut it.

In addition, those living in RTW-for-less states are less likely to have employee-sponsored health insurance or pension coverage. They have fewer workplace protections, which on Worker's Memorial Day, we should all recognize is not a good thing for the a person's health or safety. In short, they are getting screwed.

It's time for elected officials to see through the ruse that is right-to-work.