Thirty Years Of Falling Union Membership

Falling union membership could be one of the factors causing profits to grow so much faster than wages across the West, according to a new study from Natixis economist Patrick Artus. “In most OECD countries (the exceptions being France and Italy), the trend has been for a distortion of income in favour of profits,” writes Artus. “In some cases this distortion is such that household demand is reduced without being offset by a rise in business investment.” He proposes three possible reasons for this change: a fall in wage earners’ bargaining power (either due to falling union membership or simply…