Does Right To Work Work?

This by no means is an exhaustive depiction of this issue, but it does provide some insights into the debate around right to work states.  For those not familiar, there are 22 states in the union who allow workers the right to work without forced membership in an organized labor union the 28 other states do not afford their citizens such protections.  That of course begs the question if unions are so great, why would citizens be required to join them.  And if unions were so great, why would unions care if the state was a right to work state - people would join the unions anyway and the right to work laws would be a quaint formality.

But despite my obvious preference for right to work states, this is not meant to be a subjective discussion.  I just wanted to point out two facts around right to work states versus states which are not right to work states.  From there you can draw your own conclusions talking points or whatever.  There's a lot more to how a state performs than just it's right to work legislation.  Does the state have a sound economy, a good supply of quality labor, natural resources, capital, infrastructure?  These things are pretty important too.  Caveats aside take a look below;

 (Rank) State -Unemployment Rate (July 2011) [Right To Work]

 (1)    Puerto Rico - 15.5%

 (2)    Nevada - 12.9% [Y] 

 (3)    California - 12.0% 

 (4)    Michigan - 10.9% 

 (5)    South Carolina - 10.9% [Y] 

 (6)    Washington D.C. - 10.8% 

 (7)    Rhode Island - 10.8% 

 (8)    Florida - 10.7% [Y] 

 (9)    Mississippi - 10.4% [Y] 

 (10)    Georgia - 10.1% [Y]

 (11)    North Carolina - 10.1% [Y] 

 (12)    Alabama - 10.0% [Y] 

 (13)    Tennessee - 9.8% [Y] 

 (14)    Illinois - 9.5% 

 (15)    Kentucky - 9.5% 

 (16)    New Jersey - 9.5% 

 (17)    Oregon - 9.5% 

 (18)    Arizona - 9.4% [Y] 

 (19)    Idaho - 9.4% [Y] 

 (20)    Washington - 9.3% 

 (21)    Connecticut - 9.1% 

 (22)    Ohio - 9.0% 

 (23)    Missouri - 8.7% 

 (24)    Colorado - 8.5% 

 (25)    Indiana - 8.5% 

 (26)    Texas - 8.4% [Y] 

 (27)    Arkansas - 8.2% [Y]

 (28)    Delaware - 8.1% 

 (29)    West Virginia - 8.1% 

 (30)    New York - 8.0% 

 (31)    Pennsylvania - 7.8% 

 (32)    Wisconsin - 7.8% 

 (33)    Alaska - 7.7% 

 (34)    Maine - 7.7% 

 (35)    Montana - 7.7% 

 (36)    Louisiana - 7.6% [Y] 

 (37)    Massachusetts - 7.6% 

 (38)    Utah - 7.5% [Y] 

 (39)    Maryland - 7.2% 

 (40)    Minnesota - 7.2% 

 (41)    New Mexico - 6.7% 

 (42)    Kansas - 6.5% [Y] 

 (43)    Hawaii - 6.1% 

 (44)    Virginia - 6.1% [Y] 

 (45)    Iowa - 6.0% [Y] 

 (46)    Wyoming - 5.8% [Y] 

 (47)    Vermont - 5.7% 

 (48)    Oklahoma - 5.5% [Y] 

 (49)    New Hampshire - 5.2% 

 (50)    South Dakota - 4.7% [Y] 

 (51)    Nebraska - 4.1% [Y] 

( 52)    North Dakota - 3.3% [Y]  

There are two observations that I want to make.  One stems from the obvious visual that most right to work states cluster at either the top or the bottom of the unemployment rankings. There only a few in the middle.  State by state comparisons can be difficult given and the result comparisons are hampered by the fact that I do not have line of sight into how ingrained those right to work states are with the idea.  While many of the states have had the right to work for decades, how well was it enforced?  That's not immediately clear.

Taking the rankings of the states with right to work legislation (not weighted by population, in other words counting all states as equal), the average rank is 28th (27.8 actually).  Even without Puerto Rico, the ranking is 27th (26.8). That means that they are in the better half with below the median unemployment levels.

What's more meaningful is taking an unweighted average of the unemployment rates of right to work states.  It works out to 8.1% (8.06% actually), which is a full percentage point below the national average.

As I said, this doesn't factor in state populations or any other inherent advantages or disadvantages of the various states, and right to work cannot be looked at as a standalone measure. However, the onus should now be on the non-right-to-work states to make the case for their reasoning rather than the reverse. Does right to work actually work? At first blush I'd rather be in a right to work state than not.  Somebody would need to convince me otherwise.