Does ‘right to work’ imperil the right to health? The effect of labour unions on workplace fatalities

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Michael Zoorob
Department of Government, Harvard University

Abstract

Objective – Economic policies can have unintended consequences on population health. In recent years, many states in the USA have passed ‘right to work’ (RTW) laws which weaken labour unions. The effect of these laws on occupational health remains unexplored. This study fills this gap by analysing the effect of RTW on occupational fatalities through its effect on unionisation.

Methods – Two-way fixed effects regression models are used to estimate the effect of unionisation on occupational mortality per 100,000 workers, controlling for state policy liberalism and workforce composition over the period 1992-2016. In the final specification, RTW laws are used as an instrument for unionisation to recover causal effects.

Results – The Local Average Treatment Effect of a 1% decline in unionisation attributable to RTW is about a 5% increase in the rate of occupational fatalities. In total, RTW laws have led to a 14.2% increase in occupational mortality through decreased unionisation.

Conclusion – These findings illustrate and quantify the protective effect of unions on workers’ safety. Policymakers should consider the potentially deleterious effects of anti-union legislation on occupational health.

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(PDF Copy of Report)

Do wage theft laws in Ohio harm or help workers?

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BUSINESS
Updated Apr 15, 10:24 AM; Posted Apr 15, 5:00 AM

Cleveland, Ohio — Matthew J. Grassi got to savor victory for only a few minutes.

The Ohio Department of Commerce had just awarded him $1,701 in a wage theft claim against his former employer. Then the investigator told him, “It is going to really be difficult for you to see this money.”

A decade later, Grassi has “never seen a dime.” His former employer never responded to the state’s request for payment. The state says the debt probably can’t be collected.

Grassi was a victim of wage theft, a term commonly used to describe failure to pay workers fully for their labor. In Ohio, his story may not be that uncommon.

Ohio ranked second among the 10 largest states for a common type of wage theft, minimum wage violations, according to a report last year by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington. It estimates that Ohioans annually lose $600 million to wage theft.

But the state generally denies claims of wage theft, according to a Plain Dealer analysis of 4,800 complaints filed from 2010 to 2017. Even when it approves claims, victims only have a 50-50 chance to collect what they are owed.

Experts say it stems from two problems: the below-average strength of Ohio’s laws against wage theft, and the state’s lax enforcement of them.

Officially, Ohio lets wage-theft victims collect three times their back wages, called treble damages. In practice, it often chooses to waive that penalty for first-time offenders.

“In Ohio, it is not a set policy that is geared toward protecting workers and advocating for their rights,” said Daniel J. Galvin, a Northwestern University professor who studied enforcement of the law across the states. “They’re in the business of employer assistance.”

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Understanding the economic impact of prevailing wage

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Kevin Duncan

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

 

As a practicing economist for the last 30 years, I have spent much of that time studying the impact of prevailing-wage policies. And I was heartened to see that George Hawkins had looked at some of my recent work.

Mr. Hawkins rightly notes that too often, the debate over the merits of prevailing-wage policies has devolved into ideologically based arguments and conspiracy theories – neither of which is rooted in fact or data-driven analysis.

Peer-reviewed economists enjoy no such luxury, and that’s what has made a series of new impact analyses about prevailing wage – analyses that for the first time model the impact of these policies on broader economic factors such as job creation – so important, and so discomforting for those who oppose these standards.

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