With the pandemic continuing to rage, interest in labor unions appears to be on the rise. In January, hundreds of Google employees voted to unionize, and in February, thousands of Amazon workers in Alabama are expected to do the same. These movements buck a decades-long trend of union enrollment decline. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data indicates that in 1983, 20.1% of employed Americans were members of a union. By 2019, that share had decreased by roughly half to 10.3%. But in 2020, that share ticked up slightly to 10.8%. Even as the share of employed Americans who were represented by a union declined, union wages remained solid. The BLS reports that on average, in 2019, union workers earned roughly $1,095 per week, while nonunion workers earned closer to $892. Put another way, nonunion workers made just 81 cents for every dollar union workers made.

Abigail Johnson Hess, CNBC