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The decline in U.S. union membership is costing non-unionised workers thousands of dollars per year in pay, a new report has found.

The study from the Economic Policy Institute looked at how the decline of unions had impacted the earnings of workers who didn’t belong to unions. The authors found that if trade unions were as strong today as they were in the late 1970s, non-unionsed workers would be earning a potential $14 to $52 a week extra. Women are on the low end of this range because women had lower wages to begin with, the report added.

“Strong unions mean higher wages for union members and nonmembers alike,” said Jake Rosenfeld, co-author of the report.

Unions significantly affect the wages of non-union workers, especially those without a college degree, according to the report. Non-unionised male workers without a high school diploma would be earning wages around 9 percent higher if union density had remained at 1979 levels. This translates to more than three thousand dollars per year. Weekly wages for all private sector male workers would have been 5 percent higher.

Since 1979, the percentage of U.S. private-sector workers that are unionized has fallen to around ten percent from 34 percent. Unionisation among men without a college degree has fallen to 11 percent from 38 percent.