--- title: Unions Are the Key to America’s Cost of Living Crisis description: "As everything gets more and more expensive, we believe there is a powerful solution: unions," write Liz Shuler and Heidi Shierholz. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/10/15/unions-are-the-key-to-america-s-cost-of-living-crisis/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-10-15T09:00:03.971Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-15T09:00:04.613Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Unions Are the Key to America’s Cost of Living Crisis og:description: "As everything gets more and more expensive, we believe there is a powerful solution: unions," write Liz Shuler and Heidi Shierholz. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/10/15/unions-are-the-key-to-america-s-cost-of-living-crisis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d8900c9d8374dd6/6ad056748b999f724b6209f6/labor-union-cost-living.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2120 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: labor-union-cost-living.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Unions Are the Key to America’s Cost of Living Crisis twitter:description: "As everything gets more and more expensive, we believe there is a powerful solution: unions," write Liz Shuler and Heidi Shierholz. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d8900c9d8374dd6/6ad056748b999f724b6209f6/labor-union-cost-living.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  IDEAS Time ideas # Unions Are the Key to America’s Cost of Living Crisis > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=0b5975f6-d929-4ad3-b620-f863277d243d&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) by [Liz Shuler](https://time.com/author/liz-shuler/) and [Heidi Shierholz](https://time.com/author/heidi-shierholz/) Liz Shuler is the president of the AFL-CIO. Heidi Shierholz is the president of the Economic Policy Institute. Oct 15, 2026 9:00 AM UTC  Tim Robberts—Getty Images by [Liz Shuler](https://time.com/author/liz-shuler/) and [Heidi Shierholz](https://time.com/author/heidi-shierholz/) Liz Shuler is the president of the AFL-CIO. Heidi Shierholz is the president of the Economic Policy Institute. Oct 15, 2026 9:00 AM UTC Ask an everyday working American, and they’ll likely tell you there’s something [fundamentally wrong](https://time.com/article/2026/04/18/welcome-to-the-second-gilded-age/) with our economy. Across industries, big cities, and small towns, [working people are struggling](https://time.com/collections/davos-2026/7339214/global-affordability-crisis-cost-of-living-inflation-politics/). Their [paychecks aren’t stretching](https://time.com/article/2026/04/10/america-cost-of-living-pay-crisis/) far enough. They stress over every expense and struggle to cover rent and electric bills, let alone take their families to dinner once in a while. Meanwhile,[ our research shows that top CEOs](https://aflcio.org/paywatch) gave themselves massive raises in 2025 and now make [well over 300 times](https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay/) what typical workers are paid. As everything gets more and more expensive, we believe there is a powerful solution: unions. Union contracts raise pay for workers. A[ new report](https://www.epi.org/publication/the-case-for-tripling-union-membership-how-rebuilding-union-power-would-strengthen-workers-the-economy-and-our-democracy/) from the Economic Policy Institute shows that tripling union membership in this country would deliver a 14.5% raise to the median worker—more than $7,700 a year or the equivalent of 7.5 extra weeks of pay annually. This adds up to nearly $270,000 over a 35-year career. Unions can also be powerful tools for combating racial pay discrimination; the new report shows tripling union membership would narrow the racial wage gap by more than a third. Tripling union density wouldn’t only benefit union members. Nonunion workers would also see large raises, because strong unions lift standards across the economy. All told, EPI estimates that tripling union membership would shift $1.2 trillion of wealth in the economy to working people every year, reversing a third of the rise in inequality since 1979\. And because union workers can win better benefits like health insurance, tripling union membership would also provide health care to 6.8 million more Americans. It’s what the labor movement calls the union difference: higher wages, access to health care, retirement security, paid time off and sick leave, and dignity on the job. An economy where 30% of workers are union members isn’t a pipe dreamーit’s part of our own history. After New Deal policies of the 1930s and 40s secured workers’ legal rights, union membership soared. In the 1950s, union membership was above 30%, and working people saw [huge gains](https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/136/3/1325/6219103?redirectedFrom=fulltext). Wages grew, and racial wage gaps shrank. A fundamental promise of a union is that the workers will share in the profit they create—and as soon as wealthy executives and shareholders saw their bottom lines under threat, they went to work attacking that progress. Anti-union court rulings and[ so-called “right-to-work” state laws](https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/136/3/1325/6219103?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false) have broken the labor law that once protected workers. Relentless and retaliatory union-busting has created significant risks for unionizing, with corporations spending[ more than $1.5 billion](https://www.epi.org/publication/u-s-employers-spend-more-than-1-5-billion-annually-on-union-avoidance/) a year to stop workers from exercising their fundamental right to organize. And the Trump Administration has[ weakened worker protections](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/labor-department-proposes-rewriting-or-repealing-more-than-60-obsolete-rules-in-push-to-deregulate-workplaces) at the Department of Labor and prevented the government agency charged with protecting workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively from operating for[ nearly all of 2025](https://newrepublic.com/article/211161/trump-wrecking-nlrb-labor-rights), closing off workers’ avenue for justice. But workers are fighting back, and seeing real results. There is more organizing happening on the ground than at any point in our lifetimes. Workers are organizing at manufacturing plants, in newsrooms, in technology, in hospitals, on college campuses, and construction sites. They’re changing the game with[ historic contracts in women’s sports](https://aflcio.org/press/releases/afl-cio-congratulates-wnbpa-members-historic-contract). They’re organizing in “right-to-work” states in the South and are being led by women, communities of color, and young workers. The results are in the numbers. Nearly half a million workers unionized in 2025 alone, and the number of workers in unions is at a[ 16-year high](https://www.epi.org/publication/workers-resolve-drives-increase-in-unionization-in-2025/). Public-sector employees increased their unionization rates to 36.4% in 2025, and the number of private-sector workers covered by union contracts increased by close to a quarter million, including in industries such as health care, retail, construction, and education. Union representation among federal workers actually grew in the last year, reaching 31.1%, despite the Trump Administration stripping union rights from more than [one million](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/magazine/trump-federal-workers-labor-unions.html) of those workers. The recent spike in worker organizing coincides with a[ sharp rise in public approval of unions](https://news.gallup.com/poll/713936/record-high-unions-influence.aspx), and there are[ millions of nonunion workers](https://www.epi.org/publication/rise-of-the-union-curious/) in the United States who say they would join a union tomorrow if given the opportunity. Still, we know that union membership remains well below the level needed to unlock the full potential of worker power and raise pay standards across the economy. Even as we make essential progress, we’re still at about one-third of that 1950s high. The reality is that organizing alone can’t fix a system stacked against us. It’s clear to us that we must use this momentum to win key legislation that makes it easier for Americans to organize—and we have a roadmap in Congress to get there. We believe the Protecting the Right to Organize Act would restore worker protections eroded by legal loopholes and impose real penalties on companies that violate labor laws. Part of the legislation[ passed the House](https://aflcio.org/about/advocacy/legislative-alerts/letter-supporting-legislation-would-be-important-first-step) earlier this summer with bipartisan support. Another bill, the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, would guarantee for the first time that every public-sector worker in the country has the right to bargain collectively. Alongside these necessary labor law reforms, Congress can pursue bold new proposals, like requiring collective bargaining at companies where CEOs are paid at least 100 times more than typical workers, or guaranteeing newly unionized workers a cost-of-living raise. These are big fights. But they are fights we can win. That means ensuring our elected leaders will stand with workers, not billionaires, and pass pro-worker legislation. It means continuing to organize, even when the bosses and billionaires try to stand in the way. Together, we can build a better economy for working people by strengthening workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively. Because the research proves what workers have always known: It's better in a union. [TIME Ideas](https://www.time.com/ideas) hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. 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