Evaluating Right-to-Work Laws on Stable Employer-Sponsored Insurance Coverage: Evidence from Oklahoma and Missouri (1996-2006)

• In Event: Labor Politics and Worker Consciousness

Abstract

Right-to-work (RTW) laws allow workers to forego the cost of union dues while receiving benefits of a labor union’s collective bargaining efforts. Historically, unions have played an integral role in ensuring health care and employment-based benefits, as evidenced by their role in establishing our employer-sponsored insurance (ESI). Overall, states with high union densities are positively associated with supplying health plans, while the opposite has been seen in RTW states. Oklahoma had adopted RTW in 2021, which has contributed to a decline in private sector union membership and no change in manufacturing employment, even though the state’s goal was to increase manufacturing employment with its RTW adoption. Though strong evidence exists on RTW’s associational relationship with ESI, this evidence is not causal. We extend the work that has previously been done in this realm by employing a triple difference-in-differences (DDD) design, comparing ESI coverage between Oklahoma and Missouri’s (a neighboring non-RTW state) union and non-union workers between 1996-2006. We used data from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplements to identify the study sample of workers aged 18-64 years old residing in either state. Union membership in Oklahoma was lower than Missouri’s union membership (7.8% and 12.7% respectively) between 1996-2006. The main DDD estimate suggests that Oklahoma’s 2001 adoption of RTW did not have a significant effect on union workers’ ESI coverage (relate to non-unionized workers and unionized workers in Missouri). We do see, however, significant reduction in ESI coverage among non-unionized workers relative to non-unionized workers in Missouri (0.9 percentage points, p-value = 0.011, 95% CI: -0.010, -0.007). These findings imply that labor-law reforms have consequences beyond wages for unionized workers and non-unionized workers. Future work in examining bargaining power post-ACA in RTW states is necessary in understanding how labor policy impacts health insurance access.

Authors

• Sonia Persaud, University of Pittsburgh

• Jacqueline Ellison, University of Pittsburgh