Michigan scores another mediocre rating in national assessment

Michigan ranks near or below the national average in various measurements, and earlier this year it received a below-average assessment for its policies governing the labor market. The state’s latest assessment came from an association of “state legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.”

The report from the American Legislative Exchange Council ranks the 50 states on what is calls pro-worker, pro-growth reforms.

“States that work” evaluates states based on 10 labor policies that cover the following topics:

• Occupational licensing
• Right-to-work policy
• Disclosure requirements for unions
• Share of the workforce in government employment
• Independent contractors and how they are classified in law

Michigan was ranked 35 out of 50 states, better than Minnesota (37) and Illinois (42) but worse than Indiana (21), Wisconsin (22) and Ohio (26).

The report gave Michigan full credit for its 2011 Fair and Open Competition in Governmental Construction Act, which prohibits governments that let construction projects favor union firms. Michigan got partial credit for its process for dealing with criminal convictions and occupational licenses.

In 2024, Michigan became the first state in 58 years to repeal a right-to-work law through legislative action, which the report noted.

Three of the top five-rated states are in the South: Arkansas, Florida and Georgia. The other two are Arizona and Utah. Coastal states occupy each of the bottom five slots: Alaska, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon.

The report singled out Arizona for forbidding union release time (by which union officials work on company time). It also gets high marks for a law that recognizes occupational certificates issued in other states.

ALEC recommends that states enact six policies:

• Prohibit public employee unions from using release time
• Enshrine right-to-work into law
• Establish a process for reviewing sanctions on workers whose occupational license has been suspended or revoked for a criminal conviction
• Require any company that receives a taxpayer subsidy insist on a secret ballot election of a union seeks to organize its workplace
• Forbid collective bargaining agreements for public employers
• Prohibit project labor agreements, which require union labor on publicly funded construction projects

Michigan was ranked 31st in a Fraser Institute assessment of economic freedom. It is among the worst states for reading proficiency among fourth grade students as measured by the National Assessment of Economic Performance. U.S. News and World Report placed Michigan’s economy in 33rd place and gave it the 43rd place overall. The state did slightly better than the national average for its highway system, according to a recent Reason Foundation report.

In population growth, Michigan was 34th among the states over a recent four-year period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.