2013 Union Membership in Oregon

Yesterday the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released state-level summaries of union membership in 2013. Union members accounted for 13.9 percent of wage and salary workers statewide last year. Oregon's highest union membership rate (21.6%) occurred in 1989, and hit its low (13.8%) in 2006. In addition to the state's 208,000 union members, an additional 15,000  workers were represented by a union, even though not members themselves.

Oregon was among the 20 states with union membership above the nation's 11.3 percent rate. The BLS notes that more than half of the 14.5 million union members in the U.S. lived in just seven states: California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio. These states accounted for roughly one-third of wage and salary employment nationally.

More information about union membership in Oregon can be found in the BLS news release.