By Arkansas Black Vitality Staff

Feb. 19, 2026 – In 2025, Arkansas had one of the lowest union membership rates in the United States, ranking 47th out of 50 states and tied with Arizona. Only three states—South Carolina, South Dakota, and North Carolina—had lower unionization rates than Arkansas in 2025, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Statewide, the number of union members in Arkansas fell from 45,000 to 36,000 between 2024 and 2025. Although many workers benefit from collective bargaining even if they are not union members, the number of Arkansas workers covered by a union contract decreased from 56,000 to 44,000 during that year.

Of the state’s 1.25 million civilian labor force, Arkansas’s membership rate today is only 2.8%, significantly lower than the national average of 10%. Nationwide, about 16.5 million workers were covered by a union contract in 2025, up from 16 million in 2024 and the highest level in 16 years.

The new BLS data released today shows that union representation increased by 463,000 in 2025, bringing the total number of workers covered by union contracts to 16.5 million. Thanks to years of sustained organizing, 11.2% of all wage and salary workers in the United States are now covered under union contracts, up from 2024 and the highest in 16 years.

In a news release praising the nationwide union gains, AFL-CIO President Liz Schuler said organized labor is gaining momentum across the country despite the administration’s efforts to cut federal union jobs through Elon’s Musk ill-fated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the president’s shutdown of the National Labor Relations Board.

“Billionaire bosses and union-busting politicians have tried to throw the kitchen sink at working people and their unions—slashing our jobs and rigging the rules to scare us out of organizing— but they are failing,” said Shuler. 

“Labor is one of the last institutions in this country that working people actually trust,” Shuler continued. “Nearly 70% of Americans support unions and more than 50 million more workers are eager to join one—but broken labor law still has the deck stacked against them.”

Arkansas legislative reforms

Schuler’s positive picture of organized labor, however, is not shared in Arkansas, according to the BLS data. Despite rapid growth of more than 60% in union membership in the decade prior to 2023, recent legislative changes—including a 2023 ban on automatic union dues deduction for public employees—have led to a sharp decline in revenue and union trade shops across the state.

For example, as a right-to-work state, Amendment 34 of the Arkansas constitution restricts forcing an employee to join a union or pay dues and fees to a labor organization as a condition of employment.

More recently, however, Act 776 restricts public employers from automatically deducting union dues or political contributions from public employees’ paychecks. It also requires an application for union membership to contain a notice of a public-school employee’s right to join or refrain from joining a labor association.

The enactment of that law coincides with sweeping legislative reforms during the 2023 Arkansas General Assembly aimed at overhauling the state’s education system, led by the state’s newly elected Gov. Sarah Sanders. Act 237 of 2023, known as the Arkansas LEARNS Act, was the centerpiece of Sanders’ omnibus legislative package that allows families to use state funds for tuition at private or religious schools.

Among other things, the legislation raises starting teacher pay in Arkansas to $50,000, offers bonuses of up to $10,000 to certain teachers, and requires underperforming school districts to collaborate with charter schools to improve student outcomes.

According to a report by the progressive Economic Policy Institute (EPI), released on Feb. 18 alongside the BLS report, the nation’s rising union membership rate marks a departure from previous years’ downward trend and demonstrates working people’s desire for greater agency in their workplaces and in shaping the policies that affect their lives.

“In a time of fear, uncertainty, and hardship, the importance and benefits of unionization are especially clear. Further, this increase occurred despite the nation’s broken system of labor law and the most anti-union president in history,” stated the left-leaning, Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

“It is a testament to working people’s resolve and the fact that unions are increasingly viewed favorably and recognized as critical instruments for building a just economy,” the report concludes.

Black workers’ impact

According to BLS data, Black workers had the highest unionization rate among major racial and ethnic groups in 2025, at 12.7%. This compares with unionization rates of 11.0% for white workers, 10.4% for Asian workers, and 9.9% for Hispanic workers.

Still, despite maintaining the highest density, Black workers experienced a decline in 2025, dropping from 13.2% to 12.7%. This decline, according to EPI, reflected decreases among both Black men and Black women, though the underlying dynamics differed by gender. The losses were larger among Black women, and the decline among Black women in the level of union coverage was likely due, at least in part, to falling employment in 2025—a pattern not observed among Black men, whose employment rose. 

The drop in Black women’s employment in 2025 has been documented in recent analyses by Arkansas Black Vitality, EPI, and other progressive, conservative, and non-partisan economic think tanks.  According to EPI economist Valerie Wilson, some of the largest employment losses among Black women were college graduates and public-sector workers.

In 2025, Black women’s employment rate fell by 1.4 percentage points to 55.7%. This is one of the sharpest one-year declines in the last 25 years, wrote Wilson in a recent report. “Black women bore the brunt of the economic slowdown, suffering far greater employment losses than other groups of women or Black men,” stated Wilson, a labor economist and director of EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE).

While some economists have stated conclusively that Black women have suffered disproportionately from DOGE and other federal job cuts and the nation’s anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) backlash, Wilson says the biggest looming question remains unanswered: Why do federal and private-sector employment losses seem so targeted toward Black women?

“Whether those losses are an early indication of more widespread job losses to come—or casualties of anti-equity backlash in action—could become clearer in the months ahead,” Wilson said of 2026.

Meanwhile, even with the decline in unionization among Black workers, unionization among people of color overall increased more (up 289,000) than among white non-Hispanic workers (up 174,000), BLS data show. This was driven by sizeable increases in unionization among both Hispanic and Asian workers.

Among full-time wage and salary workers, union members had median usual weekly earnings of $1,404 in 2025, while nonunion workers had median usual weekly earnings of $1,174.