Unions and the Community: Unionization and Charitable Giving in the United States, 2001 – 2011

• In Event: 312 - Regular Session. Labor/Labor Movements: Labor Movements in Global, State and Local Contexts

Abstract

As union membership continues to decline, their electoral clout wanes, and the union wage premium continues to be eroded, the role of unions as a force for improving the conditions of the less advantaged in society may be called into question. We investigate the role of unions as a civic institution in American society, specifically as a facilitator for charitable giving. We argue that the voice face of unionism, in educating and encouraging workers to think and act collectively, can have spillover effects into the non-work domain for its members. Using a long-running panel study, we find that union members are more charitable than non-union workers, with free-riders being the least charitable. When controlling for differences between union and non-union workers and individual fixed effects, we find that joining a union increases the probability of giving to charity by about five per cent and the amount given by 30 per cent. This is also net of the union monopoly face, indicating our hypothesized spillover effects.

Authors

• Mark T Williams, University of Surrey

• Jonathan E Booth, London School of Economics and Political Science