Union Status and Employment-Based Health Benefits
12 Pages Posted: 16 May 2005
Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between health benefits and union status. Union workers are much more likely to have employment-based health benefits than nonunion workers. As union workers account for a declining share of the working population, further erosion of unionization is likely to coincide with an overall erosion in the percentage of workers with employment-based health benefits, although if the decline in unionization is concentrated in the private sector, the percentage of union workers with health benefits may increase because union workers would be increasingly employed by the public sector. This paper also examines the job characteristics of union and nonunion workers and analyzes the health benefits and job characteristics of union and nonunion workers.
Keywords: Employment-based benefits, Health insurance coverage, Labor unions
JEL Classification: I1, J3
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation