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A new study found that unionised healthcare workers worked fewer hours and made more money while receiving superior non-cash benefits.
The research was published in the journal JAMA with the title "Trends in Labor Unionization Among US Health Care Workers, 2009-2021." "This study is the first to systemically investigate the landscape of labour unionization among the US health care workforce and its associated economic effects," said senior author Xiaojuan Li, PhD, Instructor in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. Labour unionization efforts have resurged in the US, and union membership has been shown to improve worker conditions in some industries. However, little is known about labour unionization and its economic effects on healthcare workers. It remains unclear how labour unionization in health care has changed over the years and what benefits healthcare workers gain from unionizing. To bridge this gap, the study team examined the prevalence of labour unionization among healthcare workers and its associations with employee pay, non-cash benefits, and work hours across the healthcare workforce in the United States. The team studied healthcare workers participating in the US Census Bureau Current Population Survey and Annual Social and Economic Supplement between 2009 and 2021. This nationally representative, the population-based household survey allowed for a sample of over 14,000 self-identified healthcare workers, including physicians and dentists, advanced practitioners, nurses, therapists, technicians and support staff. Study researchers found that labour unionization rates were low, at an overall prevalence of 13.2 per cent, with no significant change from 2009 through 2021. Labour unionization was associated with better pay and better benefits for healthcare workers. Unionized workers reported earning $123 more per week than nonunionized workers, receiving better health insurance from their employer (both in terms of employer's contribution and the kind of insurance plan), and higher chance of having a pension or other retirement benefits at work. However, compared with nonunionized, unionized workers reported slightly more weekly work hours. "The associated benefits of unionization are striking but not surprising," said Ahmed Ahmed, a fourth-year medical student at Harvard Medical School and first author of the study. "Unions collectively bargain for their members, which appears to improve employee compensation and pay gaps between workers." "Future causal analysis of the relationships, however, is needed," said Dr Li. "And given the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health care workforce, investigating whether unionizing could help mitigate burnout, will be important." (ANI)
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