Unions and public pension benefits

Abstract

The brief's key findings are: (1) Recent debates suggest that union power has led to higher public pension benefits. (2) Interestingly, union strength appears to have no impact on the level or growth of benefits. (2a) Because pensions are legislated, not bargained, lobbying expertise may be more important than union size. (3) In contrast, union strength does seem to raise employees' wages. (3a) Because wages are determined through collective bargaining, union numbers appear to matter. (4) Finnally, union strength appears to reduce the relative size of the public workforce. (4a) Given the effect on wages, reductions in employment would not be unexpected. (5) These results should be viewed as only a first step in understanding the influence of public unions on employee compensation.