Work · Right to work
Right-to-Work States: Is Your State One?
Whether each state is a right-to-work state, meaning a job cannot require you to pay a union as a condition of employment, the law that decides it, and the federal-worker exceptions. Each cited to the statute.
Read this first: what right-to-work actually means
A right-to-work law means you cannot be required to join a union or pay union fees just to keep a job. It does not ban unions, and it is not about being able to be fired at will, which is a separate rule. Federal labor law lets each state decide, so a state is right-to-work only if it has passed a law or constitutional provision that says so. Where a state has not, union-security agreements are legal and the state is not right-to-work.
Two things to keep straight. First, even in a state that is not right-to-work, you can be required to pay only the share that covers bargaining costs, not full political dues. Second, some jobs follow federal, not state, rules: railway and airline workers under the Railway Labor Act, and workers on federal enclaves, are not governed by the state answer. Every figure links to the statute, and pages still pending verification say so.
Every state in one table
The verdict, the governing law, and the statute in each row.
Not right-to-work (5)
| State | Authority | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| California | No state right-to-work law | Cal. Labor Code |
| Illinois | Ill. Const. Art. I §25 | Ill. Const. Art. I §25 |
| New York | No state right-to-work law | N.Y. Labor Law |
| Ohio | No state right-to-work law | Ohio Rev. Code Title 41 |
| Pennsylvania | No state right-to-work law | Pa. Stat. tit. 43 |
Right-to-work (4)
| State | Authority | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Florida | Fla. Const. Art. I §6 | Fla. Const. Art. I §6 |
| Georgia | O.C.G.A. §§ 34-6-21, 34-6-22 | O.C.G.A. §§ 34‑6‑21 |
| North Carolina | N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 95-80 to 95-82 | N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 95‑80 |
| Texas | Tex. Labor Code §§101.052-101.053 | Tex. Labor Code §§101.052‑101.053 |
No longer right-to-work (1)
| State | Authority | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Michigan | Repealed, effective Feb. 13, 2024 | Mich. Comp. Laws § 423.14 |
What these pages are, and what they aren't
Each state page is a reference for the right-to-work rule and the neutral steps around it. They are deliberately not advice for your job: public sector, railway, and airline work can follow different rules, so each page links to the statute or the code it was read against. This is legal information, not legal advice.