Benefits bigger piece of union compensation

In March 1999, union workers received much more of their compensation in the form of benefits than did nonunion workers.

[Chart data—TXT]

The proportion of compensation costs accounted for by benefits was 34.5 percent for all union workers and 25.6 percent for nonunion workers. Blue-collar union workers received benefits totaling 36.3 percent of their compensation while blue-collar nonunion workers received 27.2 percent.

In goods-producing industries, benefit costs accounted for 36.4 percent of compensation for union workers compared with 28.5 percent for nonunion workers. In service-producing industries, union workers received benefits totaling 32.6 percent of compensation compared with 24.7 percent for nonunion members. In both goods-producing and service-producing industries, the differential between the union and nonunion percentages was the same—7.9 percentage points.

These data are a product of the BLS Employment Cost Trends program. Additional information is available from "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, 1986-99," BLS Bulletin 2526.