The Gendered Effects of Teachers’ Unions on Teacher Attrition: Evidence from District–Teacher Matched Data in the US

Abstract

This study examines how teachers' unions differently affect teacher attrition by gender, relying on nationally representative, district–teacher matched data from the United States. To identify union effects, the article employs a multilevel linear model and exploits natural experiments. Results find that teachers' unions reduce teacher attrition and that the union effects greatly differ by teacher gender and teaching subject. The study also finds that the changes in legal institutions restricting the collective bargaining of teachers significantly raise teacher attrition, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Teachers' unions help districts deal with teacher shortage problems by reducing attrition of their teachers.

• Union effects are greater for men STEM teachers than for non-STEM men teachers; the pattern is the opposite for women teachers.

• Because teaching is dominated by women, districts with higher union membership may imply more room for women's voices.

• Legal changes that undermine teachers' unions are likely to result in deteriorating employment conditions and, ultimately, poor educational outcomes.

Keywords:

• District–teacher matched data
• teachers' unions
• teacher attrition
• STEM

JEL Codes:

• I21
• J51
• J63

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2105375https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2105375

Notes

1 The National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) replaces the SASS beginning the 2015–16 academic year, but it does not contain district-level information, as the SASS does. Because contractual status between unions and districts is district-level information, this study does not use the NTPS.

2 The 2004–05 TFS data provide no information regarding voluntary leave in the way that is compatible with later TFS waves. Thus, this study does not utilize the 2003–04 SASS. The 2012–13 TFS is the most recent data.

3 The CWI measures the salaries of occupations that are comparable with teaching in the local labor market, using the baseline estimates from the 2000 US Census and annual data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment Survey. The basic idea is that all workers will ask for higher wages in areas with a higher cost of living or a lack of amenities. For example, if accountants in a certain area are paid 5 percent more than the national average accountant wage, teachers in the same area should also be paid 5 percent more than the national average teacher wage.

4 Among STEM subjects, however, about 60 percent of STEM teachers are women.

5 Intra-class correlation ρ is a summary of the proportion of the outcome variability that is attributable to differences across schools. It is calculated as $\hat{\rho }=\frac{{\hat{\sigma }}_u^2}{{\hat{\sigma }}_u^2+{\hat{\sigma }}_{ϵ}^2}$, ranging 0 to 1.

6 Several other states also passed laws weakening the unionism of public sector employees. These states include Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Oklahoma. The terms of the legal changes in these five states as of 2010, however, are more subtle compared to the changes in ID, IN, TN, and WI. Thus, the five states remain in the same group categories.

7 As of 2010, there are thirty other states with duty-to-bargain laws. They include Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eunice Han

Eunice Han is Assistant Professor at the University of Utah. Han’s recent research focuses on the impact of unionism on the local labor market, especially on inequality and on economic mobility. Han is Senior Research Associate at the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School and Research Associate at Economic Policy Institute. Han received her PhD at Harvard University.