Right-to-Work States See Larger Gains

The 2013 state personal income data was released recently and it has some good news for Michigan.

The state had the 9th best performance among the states from 2012 to 2013. While it's unclear how much of a role the passage of the right-to-work law had in the performance, it is worth a look at the trends between states with a right-to-work law and those without one.

In both personal income and in population growth, right-to-work states clearly have an advantage. From 2012 to 2013, right-to-work states grew their personal incomes by 2.8 percent and their populations by 0.9 percent. Non-right-to-work states grew their personal incomes by 2.4 percent and their populations by 0.4 percent.

When combined, per capita personal income between the two groups of states increased at roughly the same amounts. Michigan's above average per capita personal income growth can be attributed to average personal income growth and below average population growth.

Over the long term, right-to-work laws have been associated with inflation adjusted personal income growth, population increases and job growth.

Right-to-work may or may not be an influence, but Michigan's recent performance has shown improvements in all three measures.