As corporate profits keep Wall Street indexes near record highs, real wages for workers in Colorado and across the nation are currently stuck.

Some 50 million Americans said they would join a union if they could, according to a new report, but face significant barriers under current U.S. labor laws.

Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute and the report's co-author, said tripling the number of union members would bring widespread benefits, including boosting public schools, expanding access to healthcare and increasing wages to help families pay for the rising cost of just about everything.

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"Almost every conversation about affordability focuses entirely on prices, as if the only way to make life more affordable is to make things cheaper. But affordability depends on both prices and pay," Shierholz pointed out.

For decades, corporations have warned Americans about the potential costs of joining a union, including dues workers have to pay and the risk of losing jobs if companies cannot stay competitive. Amazon, Starbucks and others invest millions in union avoidance strategies and make the case to workers companies are best positioned to take care of their own.

Corporations have also successfully lobbied Congress and state legislatures to pass laws making it much harder to form or join a union. The report calls for reforming the laws.

Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, who represents some 15 million workers, said tripling union membership is not a pipe dream. More than one in three private sector workers belonged to a union in the 1950s.

"Back in the 1950s when, frankly, our wages were actually growing along with the economy and when economic growth meant that all of us won, not just the billionaires," Shuler emphasized.

Shierholz noted if wages had kept up with productivity gains since the 1950s, average worker paychecks would be 40% bigger than they are today, adding making it possible for more workers to join a union could help address some of today’s biggest challenges.

"Rebuilding union density would raise wages, shrink racial wage gaps, expand health coverage, strengthen communities and protect our democracy all at the same time. There is no other policy lever that does all of that," Shierholz contended.