Portside

Union membership has been dropping since 1983. At that time about 20 percent of U.S. workers were in a union, which itself was a big drop from the 1950s, when unions represented more than one-third of American workers.

Workers who are never in a union were projected to earn around $2.1 million their whole careers, while those who were in unions for their whole careers were estimated to make $3.4 million, according to a Cornell University study.