By Walt Hickey Outnumbered In the 2015-16 election cycle, unions spent $213 million on federal elections, which sounds like a lot until you hear that businesses spent $3.4 billion. Annually unions spent $48 million per year lobbying, which nevertheless is a tiny fraction of the $3 billion spent by corporate America. Overall, just one in 16 private sector workers in the U.S. is in a union, and it tends to show when stacking worker rights up against peers: France’s minimum wage is 62 percent of its median wage, Britain’s is 54 percent, but in the U.S. it’s merely 34 percent.