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Union pay advantage grows

Date Posted: March 3 2006

Union members continue to earn substantially higher wages and receive superior benefits at work than nonunion workers, according to recently released data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

In fact, union wages are increasing faster than nonunion wages, giving union members and their families a better chance of maintaining a middle-class standard of living.

A typical union worker made $179 a week more in 2005 than a nonunion worker did, a gap that widened by $10 from the year before, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Construction workers earn $343 a week more if they're union.

Full-time union workers had a median weekly income of $801 in 2005, BLS says - 28.8 percent higher than the $622 median that nonunion workers earned.

The union advantage translates into more than $9,300 a year in extra pay for union households.