By John Biver

So how does Illinois rank when it comes to worker freedom and employee rights issues? According to the Alliance for Worker Freedom, not very well.

From here:

"The 2009 Index of Worker Freedom (IWF) is the Alliance for Worker Freedom's second sate-by-state comparative study that measures the level of worker freedom by analyzing actual policy as well as quantitative state data. Building on the success of the 2007 IWF, the second installation of the Index saw the addition of six new metrics in order to most accurately depict a state's labor climate.

 

The Index of Worker Freedom will provide the public, researchers, policy-makers, federal and state legislatures, employees and business owners with a tool for cross-national comparative analysis and future research on the level of employee's rights and worker freedom in each state.

One of the key findings from this year's Index was the negative correlation between a state's union density and its level of worker freedom. States in the top quintile of worker freedom had levels of union density 41 percent lower than the national average and 55 percent lower than states in the bottom quintile.

 

Unsurprisingly, workers and employers are fleeing states with low levels of worker freedom--generally heavily unionized states--in favor of states with high levels of worker freedom.

 

States ranked in the top quintile of worker freedom saw their population grow 51 percent faster than the national average and 149 percent faster than states in the bottom quintile between the 2008-2009 period. These two metrics, population growth and union density, are key indicators of a state's level of worker freedom.

Here is the Illinois page:

Click here to learn more about the Alliance for Worker Freedom.

John Biver is the Editor of Champion News.