Michigan Incomes Up Strong After 4 Years of ‘Right-to-Work-for-Less’

Michigan’s per capita personal income grew faster than that of 40 other states in 2016. Regionally, only Indiana saw incomes rise faster. (Indiana adopted right-to-work a year before Michigan.)

In 2009, at the low point of the Great Recession and Michigan’s “lost decade,” residents of 39 other states had a higher income than people in Michigan did. By last year, we had risen to No. 31 on this critical measure of economic well-being for families and small businesses.

Last week marked the fourth anniversary of when Michigan’s right-to-work law went into effect. The law prohibits employers from making an employee financially support a union as a condition of employment. One slogan repeated by union advocates then was that the new law was “right-to-work-for-less.”