Employees in right-to-work states can buy a lot more stuff with their money than their counterparts in union shop states, according to a new study from a Michigan economic think-tank.

Apparently, the cost of living in right-to-work states is so much lower than in the union shop states that right-to-work employees have higher purchasing power.

“For example, Texas per-capita income was $37,098 but would have a purchasing power of $49,700 in the state of New York in 2007,” according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “New York’s per-capita income was $47,852.”

The report comes as a response to President Obama, who attacked Michigan’s right-to-work law — a bill that allows employees to opt out of a union — as anti-worker.

“These so called right to work laws, they don’t have to do with economics — they have everything to do with politics,” Obama said during a trip to Michigan in December. “What they’re really doing is trying to talk about the right to work for less money.”

Sign Up for the Politics Today newsletter!

Please enter your email address below to begin receiving the Politics Today newsletter.

You must enter a valid email address in the field above!

Thank you for signing up for the Politics Today newsletter! You should receive your first newsletter very soon.

We're sorry, there was an error processing your newsletter signup. Please click here to visit our Newsletter Signup Center to register for this newsletter.

“Adjusting to cost-of-living also changes the lists of states with the highest and lowest incomes,” the Mackinac Center also argues. “Natural-resources rich Wyoming becomes the second-wealthiest state and Virginia, Florida and Texas make it to the top 10. Of the 22 right-to-work states that existed in 2007, only three were in the the bottom 15 — Mississippi, Utah and Idaho.”