The Right to Work Advantage

Yesterday the Foundation released “Where the Good Jobs Are: A New Look at Right to Work and Employment Growth.” Our paper found further confirmation that businesses and entrepreneurs prefer to expand in, relocate to, and set up shop in right-to-work states, where employees cannot be compelled to surrender a portion of their pay to unions. Even more, the RTW advantage applies to middle- and high-compensation jobs — i.e., there is no “race to the bottom.”

One of the paper’s most interesting findings is that firms based in non-RTW states are shifting their assets and facilities to RTW states. In total, 92 percent of the jobs to be generated by border-crossing investments went from non-RTW to RTW:

The story was similar for foreign direct investment. Businesses based abroad preferred labor freedom, with 83 percent of their job growth to take place in RTW states:

Is it time for New Mexico, reeling from rising unemployment and a falling labor-participation rate, to go RTW?