Unions, Race, and the Uneven Rewards of Teaching

Abstract

This study examines how racial income inequality persists within the teaching profession, a field often considered a pathway to stable, middle-class employment due to its standardized pay structures and strong union presence. This makes teaching a particularly revealing case for examining wage stratification within a predominantly public-sector and highly unionized occupation. Public-sector jobs are often noted for their government oversight, and unions are also recognized for promoting pay equity among union members. However, both systems operate within larger structures of inequality, which can limit their effectiveness in addressing wage disparities. By investigating the intersection of race and ethnicity, union membership, and wages, this research uncovers several mechanisms that disrupt or perpetuate wage disparities among teachers. This study uses data from the Current Population Survey Merged Outgoing Rotation Group (CPS MORG) from 1989 to 2023 to address the question: how does union membership intersect with race to influence wages among teachers? The analysis highlights the dual role unions play in disrupting and perpetuating wage disparities, revealing a nuanced relationship between union membership, race and ethnicity, and wages within the teaching profession. This underscores the complexities of labor stratification even in regulated environments. The teaching profession illustrates how institutional mechanisms like unionization interact with broader patterns of inequality, sometimes reproducing disparities they aim to dismantle. By focusing on the intersection of union membership and racial inequality in a public-sector profession, this study adds nuance to current debates on labor equity. It highlights how unions can both alleviate and reproduce disparities, depending on the broader institutional and historical contexts in which they operate.