Will I Ever Be Satisfied? Job Quality and Unionization

Abstract

We study the relationship between hard-to-observe aspects of job quality and unionization in the U.S. economy. Establishments where workers report a decline in job quality are more likely to experience a unionization effort, even within the same firm. This dissatisfaction with job quality does not reflect differences or widening gaps in pay, but rather differences and widening gaps in working conditions such as career opportunities, culture, management, and work-life balance. Given the hard-to-observe nature of job quality, union organizing would appear to reflect grassroots movements from within. Though the traditional exit-voice hypothesis postulates that unionization reduces employee turnover, our analysis finds the causation may run the opposite way, as workers who seek to unionize tend to have longer firm tenure even before seeking out representation. Finally, even after workers successfully vote to unionize, job quality does not appear to improve.