What explains the increase in trade union density and female share of union members in the United Kingdom in 2017-2020?

Harris, Richard; Moffat, John

doi:10.1177/00221856231157107

What explains the increase in trade union density and female share of union members in the United Kingdom in 2017-2020?

Harris, Richard; Moffat, John

Authors

Professor Richard Harris r.i.d.harris@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Dr John Moffat john.moffat@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Abstract

Trade union density increased for three consecutive years in the United Kingdom between 2017 and 2020. This contrasts with a general decline in union membership since 1979. Since union density continued to fall amongst male employees in 2017–2020, the overall increase was entirely attributable to females. This paper explores the factors which explain why there was an increase in overall union density after a period of decline (for males and females) and why union density evolved so differently for males and females. Using decomposition methodologies, we find that the increase in union density in 2017–2020 was not due to a higher propensity to unionise within particular groups or across all employees. Instead, the principal driver of the overall rise in 2017–2020 was an increase in the proportion of employment in certain public sector organisations. The largest contributor to the difference across males and females was increases in the share of employment in more unionised occupations amongst female employees and decreases amongst male employees.

Citation

Harris, R., & Moffat, J. (2023). What explains the increase in trade union density and female share of union members in the United Kingdom in 2017-2020?. Journal of Industrial Relations, 65(3), https://doi.org/10.1177/00221856231157107

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jan 28, 2023
Online Publication Date	Mar 6, 2023
Publication Date	2023
Deposit Date	Jan 30, 2023
Publicly Available Date	Jan 31, 2023
Journal	Journal of Industrial Relations
Print ISSN	0022-1856
Electronic ISSN	1472-9296
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	65
Issue	3
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1177/00221856231157107
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1181761

Files

Accepted Journal Article (474 Kb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).