It’s not about the pay, it’s about the union paying members.

Few progressive causes have enjoyed as much recent success as the campaign to raise pay for the working poor. Most large cities in California have raised their minimum wage over the last several years, culminating in Gov. Jerry Brown’s signing the nation’s first statewide $15 minimum wage last week. On the same day, New York enacted a less-comprehensive wage increase that activists also greeted as a victory.

Less celebrated, and often unnoticed, has been a series of loopholes that cut union workers out of the very pay increases their leaders have championed. Such clauses have emerged as one of the labor movement’s most divisive issues, clouding an otherwise triumphant political moment for the unions that have backed new wage mandates.

By making unions the “low-cost option” for businesses seeking to avoid paying better wages, they assert, the exemptions are designed to drive up union membership — and revenue from dues — at the expense of workers.

What is Important Are Dues Members, Not Pay These Workers Receive