Labor unions and standards of living

From our colleagues at LaborProf Blog, this link to a study by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research on comparisons between real wages in “union shop” and “right to work” states. The study, called The Standard of Living in Right to Work States, and written by Barry Poulson, an economics professor at the University of Colorado, finds that workers in states with union shop laws have higher nominal wages than right to work states, but that when adjusted for cost-of-living and taxes, the right to work states come out on top.