Study: Union Construction Training Has Economic, Social Benefits on Par With College Degree

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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%).

 

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