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Connecticut has among the highest rates of union membership in the nation.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Connecticut and Rhode Island tied for the fifth-highest percentage of unionized workers last year — behind only New York, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii.

In 2025, 16.1% of Connecticut’s total employed population were members of a union and 17.2% were covered by union protections. (A portion of the 284,000 workers covered by unions in Connecticut aren’t members.)

But union membership varies by industry. Among the state’s public sector workers, more than half reported union membership.

Union membership was more common — in Connecticut and nationally — for previous generations of workers.

In 1980, an estimated 23% of the national working population were members of a union, according to Census data compiled by Union Stats, a group composed of economists who maintain the database of demographic and employment union data. But that number has declined since then.

By 2025, only around 10% of the U.S. employed population were union members.

In Connecticut, union membership has fluctuated over that same period but is down overall. In 1983, nearly 23% of working people in Connecticut were union members, notably higher than today’s rate.

Connecticut labor unions first organized during the Industrial Revolution, when the scale of American production was expanding.

In the 1830s, craftsmen in Connecticut created mechanics’ associations. Soon, chapters of different skill-based unions were getting more involved in state politics, and some members were elected to the state legislature, where they’ve represented worker interests for generations.

Union membership reached a peak around the 1950s. But in the latter half of the 20th century, manufacturing began moving overseas, and sentiment toward unions shifted. The 1980s marked the beginning of a steep drop-off in union membership in the U.S., especially in the private sector.

Today, union membership in Connecticut is most common in the public sector. And benefits for those workers is a perennial debate among state lawmakers.

An estimated 63% of public sector employees in Connecticut are members of a union, with 65% of public employees covered by a union. That’s second-highest among states; only New York reports a higher percentage of unionized public sector workers.

Nationally, only around 32.9% of the public sector workforce is unionized.

Sasha is a data reporting fellow with The Connecticut Mirror. She graduated from the University of Maryland in May with a degree in journalism and a minor in creative writing. For the past year Sasha was working part time for the Herald-Mail, a newspaper based in Western Maryland. She was also a reporter and copy editor for Capital News Service, the university’s wire service where she covered the state legislature, the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse, school board elections, youth mental health and climate change. Earlier in her college career, Sasha also interned at the Baltimore Magazine and wrote for numerous student publications including the Diamondback, the university’s independent, student-run newspaper.