After decades of disappointing wage growth for most workers, a new report shows that unionization significantly boosts the pay of low-wage workers. The report was released jointly last month by the Fiscal Policy Institute in Albany and the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.

The report, "The Union Advantage for Low-Wage Workers," finds that for workers in the lowest wage brackets in New York state, union membership means getting a wage that is 16 percent higher than for non-unionized workers with similar education and other characteristics. That's even more than the national average wage premium of 12 percent for workers represented by a union. The lowest wage brackets refer to the lowest-paid 20 percent of workers.

"This is very good news for workers who are already in unions, like the 28,000 newly organized home-based child care providers who are currently negotiating their first contract," noted David Dyssegaard Kallick, senior fellow of the Fiscal Policy Institute. The FPI is a nonpartisan research and education organization that focuses on tax, budget and economic issues.

Kallick was referring to day care workers in New York City who voted 8,382-to-96 last year to join the United Federation of Teachers, NYSUT's local in the city's schools.

Home-based day care workers are subsidized by the city to care for children of low-income parents. They earned an average of $19,000 in 2007.

The new chapter, the UFT-ACORN Family Day Care Providers Union, has been active. In February, it held a protest rally over back pay and a lack of information about new subsidy rates.

In April, the chapter got action after a public protest over chronically late paychecks.

See the full report at www.cepr.net/documents/publications/quantile_2008_05.pdf.

- Lance Howland