A constant claim by opponents of right-to-work, whether it be from the AFL-CIO, state Democratic legislators or the president, is that income is lower in right-to-work states. But these naysayers are blinded to a paycheck reality: the cost of living.
Having a larger paycheck doesn’t matter much if you can’t purchase as much with it. Adjusting for per-capita personal income — a standard measure of a state’s wealth — the difference between right-to-work and non-right-to-work states disappears.
Consider Connecticut, the state with the highest per-capita personal income. A dollar just doesn’t buy as much in Connecticut as it does in Michigan.
To highlight how disparate the cost-of-living can be, I had a friend explore a megastore outside of Hartford to look at prices for some common consumer goods. I had another friend scan prices on the same goods in Ann Arbor, a city roughly the same size as Hartford. In every single instance, the price of goods was more expensive in Connecticut.
Read More at mackinac.org . By James M. Hohman.
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I’m all for right to work State’s
The State of Wyoming is a right to work state………. Wages are lower than the norm, grocery prices are absurd, the “Rights” of the worker are next to nil. The general attitude of the owners and operators upon hearing virtually any complaint is one of “If you don’t like it here, good luck !” The “Right to Work” idea may work in some states, of course employers love it……. But in other states, it sucks, especially in smaller towns (say, 2000 -10,000 pop.)….. end of story. In right to work states, you end up with employers that wish it was still the 1920′s, so they could set their own wages and pay people less than slave wages………… I believe that Privatization would foster the same……. or worse…..