Right-to-work states: the list and what the law really changes

Section 14(b): the federal permission behind every state law

The National Labor Relations Act lets a union and an employer agree that employees in the bargaining unit must pay the union, because the union has a legal duty to represent all of them, members or not. Section 14(b), codified at 29 U.S.C. 164(b), then carves out the states. It says nothing in the federal law authorizes agreements requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment in any state where state law prohibits them. A right-to-work statute or constitutional amendment is the state using that permission. The result is a patchwork: the same national company can have a union security clause at a plant in one state and be barred from it at a plant across the border.

Some states wrote the rule into their constitution rather than an ordinary statute, which makes it harder to repeal: Florida (The minimum wage is in the state constitution (Article X, Section 24), and the right to work is in the Declaration of Rights (Article I, Section 6).); Mississippi (Right to work is written into the Mississippi Constitution (Section 198A).); Tennessee (Right to work is written into the Tennessee Constitution (Article XI), in addition to the statute (Tenn. Code Ann. 50-1-201).)

What changes for a worker covered by a union contract

In a right-to-work state, a unionized employer cannot fire you for refusing to join the union or to pay it anything. The union still negotiates your wages and still has to represent you fairly in grievances, because it is the exclusive representative of everyone in the unit. Supporters call that freedom of choice; unions call the nonpayers free riders. Either way, the practical effect is on your paycheck: dues of $45 a month come to $540 a year, and in a right-to-work state paying them is optional.

Outside right-to-work states, a contract with a union security clause can require the workers it covers to pay the union. The obligation is financial, and the exact scope of the fee that can be demanded, including what objectors may refuse to fund, is set by federal labor law and the decisions of the National Labor Relations Board rather than by the state. The mini-simulator above shows the yearly cost of dues and whether a fee can be required in the state you pick.

What right-to-work does not change

The label is often misunderstood. It does not give you a right to a job, protect you from being fired, or set any wage. It is not the same as at-will employment, which concerns how a job can end and applies in nearly every state, right-to-work or not. It has no effect on the minimum wage, overtime, breaks, paid leave or the final paycheck. Your right to join a union, to organize with coworkers and to discuss pay is protected by federal law in every state. And for workers who are not covered by a union contract at all, which is most private-sector employees, right-to-work changes nothing in daily work.

Right-to-work states and pay rules, side by side

Because right-to-work laws say nothing about wages, any link with pay comes from the politics of the states that adopted them, not from the law itself. The data on this site makes the pattern visible. The average general minimum wage in force on October 11, 2026 is $8.91 across the right-to-work states covered here and $13.86 across the others. Of the states that still leave workers at the federal $7.25, 17 are right-to-work (Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming) and 3 are not. A statewide paid sick leave law exists in 3 of the 24 right-to-work states and in 18 of the 27 others. None of this follows from section 14(b); a state could adopt right-to-work and a high minimum wage together, and a few have mixed policies.

For an individual worker, the direct money question is only the union fee. A unionized warehouse worker paying $45 a month keeps $540 a year by declining to pay in a right-to-work state, while still receiving the contract wage the union negotiated. Whether that is worth it is a personal and collective choice that the law leaves to you.

Public employees: the Janus decision

Government workers are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act; their bargaining rights come from state law. Until 2018, many states allowed public-sector unions to collect agency fees from nonmembers. In Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the Supreme Court held that the State of Illinois' extraction of agency fees from nonconsenting public-sector employees violates the First Amendment, overruling its earlier Abood decision. Since then, no public employee anywhere in the country can be required to pay a union as a condition of the job, so public-sector work is effectively right-to-work in every state. The ruling does not reach private employers, where section 14(b) and state law still decide.

How to tell whether a fee applies to you

Start with the collective bargaining agreement. A union security clause is usually a short article near the beginning, often titled union security or union membership, that says when new hires must begin paying and what happens if they do not. If there is no such clause, no fee can be required anywhere, whatever the state. If there is one and you work in a right-to-work state, the clause cannot be enforced against you. Then look at your pay stub: dues are normally taken by payroll deduction only with a signed authorization, and that card may limit when you can revoke it, so read it before signing. Questions about a specific contract go to the union, the employer's human resources office or the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board. The 27 jurisdictions marked No in the table allow union security clauses in private-sector contracts.