"right to work" laws are anything but . . .

A "right to work" law does not provide work nor give workers any right other than free representation at the expense of their unionized coworkers. No state requires a worker to join a union to keep a job. In free bargaining states, people in union workplaces pay a fee to cover the direct costs of representing them. By creating such free-riders, RTW laws weaken union workers and provide employers additional power over workers. Follow the reasoning behind a 2011 briefing paper from the Economic Policy Institute:

Wages in right-to-work states are 3.2% lower than those in non-RTW states, after controlling for a full complement of individual demographic and socioeconomic variables as well as state macroeconomic indicators. Using the average wage in non-RTW states as the base ($22.11), the average full-time, full-year worker in an RTW state makes about $1,500 less annually than a similar worker in a non-RTW state.