There is no truth here. First, there is a minimum wage which is independent of unions. Second, an employee is worth what the market dictates. This may seem obvious, but lets say you have x and y skills. The typical market for that in central ohio is $50,000 a year. That is what you are worth. If you have a little more experience or some more skills/certs/education, maybe you are worth a little more. If you need a union to force a company to pay you a decent wage, maybe you should go back to school or find a different job where you feel you are worth what your employee pays you. No one's forcing you to work for less than you feel you deserve. The same goes for the employer, no one should force them to pay more for a service/employee than what they are worth.