Despite a resounding union victory, garnering the highest approval rating in decades, the percentage of U.S. workers with union membership hit a record low for the second year in a row in 2023.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday that union membership percentage increased from 101% decreased slightly to 10%.
The number of unionized workers with all wages and salaries increased from 14.3 million in the previous year to 14.4 million in 2023, but it still could not keep pace with the increase in non-union workers last year.
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The large increase in total wages and salaries has led to a decline in union membership over the past two years, compared to the increase in union membership.
Union membership fell last year, and despite a series of labor activism, high-profile victories, the union gained the highest public approval rating in nearly 60 years.
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In 2023, after months of strikes, organized Hollywood actors and writers cheered for new contracts, targeted by the United Auto WorkersFord, General Motors and Stellantis hit record contracts with the three companies after the strikes, and Teamsters reached a record contract with UPS.
An August Gallup survey found that 71% of Americans approve of organized labor, up from 68% in 2021 and 64% before the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from Gallup's annual Survey of Work and Education also marks the highest rating Gallup has had on record since 1965, when the Chávezformed AFL-CIO Joint Farm Workers Organizing Committee was the case.
Despite this, union membership has been steadily declining since the 70s of the 20th century and is now less than a third of its peak in the 50s, when more than 30% of workers joined the union.