By Becky Wright, Executive Director, Unions 21 | 3 min
What the data tells us
In 2024, membership subscriptions accounted for around 80% of total recorded union income across the UK, which is roughly £704 million of £876 million.
When you map the distribution of an average per year payment per member, a clear pattern emerges. General and ‘blue-collar’ unions cluster at the lower end where we suspect their overall operating model is sustained through scale and activist infrastructure (facility time carries much of the weight).
Craft and specialist unions sit significantly higher, often charging two to four times the median amount - which could reflect the more staff intensive representation, indemnities and risk coverage.
You can see the distribution across unions here:
How unions collect - and why it matters
There are broadly three collection models in use:
Percentage of pay - dues are calculated as a proportion of earnings.
Banded flat fees - rates are set by income band or role, providing predictability for both members and the union's cash flow.
Hours worked - reflecting a membership where hours vary significantly across the workforce.
There are also add-ons that most unions have developed: associate or community rates for members who are unemployed, on caring leave or retired; early career and student rates that are free or heavily discounted, often used as a density strategy to build membership in younger demographics before transitioning them to full rates.
Across all of these, what provides financial stability is predictability. Recurring, reliable income is what lets a union plan with any confidence and absorb shocks when they come.
The question underneath the model
In a previous piece, we explored how your dues model isn't just a financial mechanism - it sends a signal of what kind of union and culture you are.
When you set or review your rates, how do you actually arrive at the number? Do you take into consideration the culture you’re trying to project?
Practically, some unions we work with check what others in their sector or space are charging and anchor there. However, benchmarking against peers only tells you what others are charging, not whether any of you are charging the right amount for your union and for the strategy you’re building.
Some build from costs, i.e. what does it actually take to run this union? Staff, premises, casework provision, ballots, data systems, governance, reserves. We've written about that process separately, and it's the right foundation. But even cost-based pricing often stops at break-even rather than resilience. The unions that manage their finances well tend to think one question further: what do we need in reserve to absorb a bad year without cutting services or capacity?
And then there's stress-testing. What happens to your finances if you lose 5% of members? 10%? What if inflation spikes and members start pausing or reducing their subs? What if you have to fund a prolonged period of industrial action? Running those scenarios before you're in them is what distinguishes a financially resilient union from one that discovers its vulnerability at the worst possible moment.
What about your union?
How does your union think about membership subscriptions? With the upcoming potential issues from conflicts and wars across the globe, how is this affecting your union’s financial situation? Please get in touch.
