Supplemental union dues are variable payments members pay on top of flat monthly dues, calculated either as a percentage of gross wages (commonly 1% to 3%) or as a fixed cents-per-hour rate tied to actual work performed. Often called “working dues,” they rise and fall with your paycheck, so you pay more during busy stretches and less when hours drop. Two federal statutes set the ground rules for how these dues are calculated, collected, raised, and enforced: the Labor Management Relations Act and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA).
How the Amount Is Calculated
Two formulas dominate. A percentage-of-wages local might set supplemental dues at 2% of gross pay; a worker earning $45 an hour over a 40-hour week would owe $36 in working dues that week. The same member working only 20 hours would owe $18. A cents-per-hour local charges a flat rate for every hour worked, which produces a similar pay-as-you-earn effect without tying the number directly to wage rates.
What counts as “gross wages” is not uniform. Some locals assess supplemental dues only on straight-time pay and leave out overtime premiums, holiday pay, and discretionary bonuses. Others apply the rate to every dollar of gross earnings. The specific base lives in your collective bargaining agreement, so read the contract language rather than guessing. A shop steward or the local office can point you to the exact provision if it’s buried.
Supplemental Dues vs. Basic Dues
Basic dues are a flat amount every member pays to stay in good standing, no matter how many hours you work. Whether you log 200 hours in a month or none, the basic figure doesn’t change. This flat fee typically flows upward to the national or international parent organization as per capita tax, funding the union’s broader infrastructure.
Supplemental dues do something different. Because they track real earnings, they give the local a revenue stream that scales with the economic activity of its workforce. In a construction boom or a stretch of heavy overtime, working dues bring in more. In a slow quarter, the revenue dips with the hours. Basic dues provide a stable floor; supplemental dues provide the growth that funds day-to-day operations at the local level.
What Supplemental Dues Pay For
Revenue from supplemental dues generally stays closer to the local union and pays for things that directly affect your working conditions. Typical uses include salaries for business agents and union staff, office rent and administration, legal counsel during contract negotiations, and economic research that supports bargaining positions. When your local hires an attorney to challenge a contract violation or sends a team to negotiate your next pay increase, working dues are often what covers it.
Unions have to report where this money goes. Every union filing an annual report with the Department of Labor must break out working dues separately from regular dues, and those filings are publicly searchable through the DOL’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.1U.S. Department of Labor. Instructions for Form LM-2 Labor Organization Annual Report You can look up your own local and see how the money was spent.
How the Money Comes Out of Your Pay
Most members pay supplemental dues through payroll deduction. To set this up, you sign a dues check-off authorization, which instructs your employer to withhold the specified amount from each paycheck and send it to the union. Without your signed authorization, federal law bars your employer from diverting any wages to a labor organization.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 186 – Restrictions on Financial Transactions
The authorization identifies you, names the local receiving the funds, and sets the deduction rate. You usually get the form from a shop steward or through your employer’s HR department. One key legal detail: the authorization cannot be made permanently irrevocable. Under federal law, it can be irrevocable for no more than one year or until the current collective bargaining agreement expires, whichever comes first.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 186 – Restrictions on Financial Transactions After that, you have the right to revoke.
Revoking the Authorization
In practice, many authorization forms specify a narrow annual window, often 10 to 15 days, during which you can submit a written revocation. Miss the window and the authorization typically renews for another year. The exact timing lives in your authorization form and collective bargaining agreement, so read both before the window closes.
Revoking stops the payroll deduction, but it does not necessarily end your obligation to pay. If you work under a union security agreement in a state that allows them, you may still owe dues directly to the union to remain in good standing. Revocation just means the money stops coming out of your check automatically; the union has to collect another way.
How Supplemental Dues Can Be Raised
Union leadership can’t raise supplemental dues on its own. The LMRDA requires any increase in dues rates or any new assessment to go through a democratic vote.3U.S. Department of Labor. Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act At the local level, where most supplemental dues decisions happen, the increase must be approved either by a majority secret-ballot vote at a general or special membership meeting, or by a majority in a secret-ballot referendum sent to the membership. The union has to give members reasonable notice beforehand that the question will be on the table.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 411 – Bill of Rights; Constitution and Bylaws of Labor Organizations The statute doesn’t define reasonable notice as a specific number of days; courts have looked at whether members had enough time and information to decide whether to attend and vote.
Rules for national and international unions and intermediate bodies work differently, but the local-level procedure covers almost every case a member will encounter. If a union pushes through an increase without following the required procedure, the increase can be challenged and declared void. A member who believes a hike skipped a proper vote can file a complaint with the Department of Labor or take the issue to court.
Whether You Have to Pay
Whether you can be required to pay supplemental dues at all depends on where you work. In states that permit union security agreements, an employer and union can negotiate a contract clause requiring all bargaining unit employees to begin paying dues within 30 days of hire. Twenty-seven states currently ban these agreements through right-to-work laws.5National Labor Relations Board. Union Dues In those states, paying any union dues, including supplemental dues, is voluntary. The union still has to represent everyone in the bargaining unit regardless of whether they pay.
Even in non-right-to-work states, you have options. Under Communications Workers of America v. Beck, employees covered by a union security agreement can choose to become non-members and pay only the share of dues that funds representational activity like collective bargaining and contract administration.6Justia Law. Communications Workers of America v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735 (1988) Spending on political campaigns, lobbying, and community events can’t be charged to objecting non-members, and the union has to tell covered employees about this right.7National Labor Relations Board. Causing or Attempting to Cause an Employer to Discriminate Supplemental dues get the same reduction, since they’re part of the total the union collects.
Public-Sector Employees
If you work for a state or local government, the rules are more protective still. The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME held that no dues or fees of any kind may be deducted from a public-sector employee’s wages unless the employee affirmatively consents, and that consent has to be freely given and supported by clear and compelling evidence rather than implied by silence or failure to opt out.8Supreme Court of the United States. Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 Public-sector unions cannot collect supplemental dues from anyone who hasn’t clearly agreed to pay them.
If You Don’t Pay
Consequences depend on your union’s constitution, your collective bargaining agreement, and whether you work in a right-to-work state. In a right-to-work state, there’s no consequence beyond potentially losing union membership and the benefits that come with it, including the ability to vote in union elections or run for office.
In states that allow union security agreements, the stakes rise. A union security clause typically makes dues payment a condition of continued employment. If you fall behind, the union can notify your employer in writing, and after a notice period (often 72 hours) the employer may be obligated to terminate you. The union can only seek termination for failure to pay dues and fees uniformly required of all members; it cannot push for firing over any other internal union matter.7National Labor Relations Board. Causing or Attempting to Cause an Employer to Discriminate
Even where termination isn’t on the table, falling out of good standing means losing your voice in the union. You can’t vote on contract ratifications, run for office, or participate in the processes that set the very dues rates you’re paying. When a dues increase vote comes up, members not in good standing don’t get a ballot.
Are Supplemental Dues Tax Deductible?
At the federal level, no. Before 2018, union dues fell under miscellaneous itemized deductions that were deductible to the extent they exceeded 2% of adjusted gross income. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated that deduction starting in 2018, and the current statute provides that no miscellaneous itemized deduction is allowed for any tax year beginning after December 31, 2017, with no expiration date.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 67 – 2-Percent Floor on Miscellaneous Itemized Deductions Some states still allow a deduction for union dues on the state return, so check your state’s rules before writing off the expense entirely.