Study: Union Construction Training Has Economic, Social Benefits on Par With College Degree
Jeff Yoders, ENR Midwest
Union apprenticeship programs in the construction industry produce salary and social outcomes for workers equivalent to the jobs and social situations of those with four-year college degrees, a new union-backed study of 10 years of federal statistics concludes.
The Illinois Economic Policy Institute, a pro-labor non-profit based in LaGrange, lll., analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau and federal Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2010 through 2020. The dataset reports individual-level information on about 98,000 households over the past decade.
The analysis found union construction workers who graduated joint labor-management apprenticeship programs earn an average income of about $58,000 per year, about halfway between all workers with a two-year associate's degrees ($48,200) and all workers with bachelor’s degrees ($68,600). Union construction workers also have a private health insurance coverage rate of 89%, higher than workers with the associate's degree (84%) and on par with those with a four-year bachelor’s degrees (90%).