Washington Public Sector Labor Negotiations Blog
Trends and Developments Concerning Washington Public Labor Contracts
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
In part 4 of our on-going wage series we now turn to the rankings of County Deputy and City Police Officer rankings throughout the State. This series always produces both expected and unexpected information about the relative standing of jurisdictions.
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
This is the third article in our 11 part series reporting on contract settlement trends. This article highlights some of the recent economic developments most likely to impact your negotiations outlook.
In our recent Blog, we noted the recent improvement in the Seattle economy as reported in the February “Economic and Revenue Update” from the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (WSERFC). Washington employment was slightly higher than forecast; housing construction improved; Seattle area home prices continue to rise; and Washington exports reached an all-time high in the fourth quarter of 2014.
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
This is the second part of our 11 part Summer 2015 wage series. In this article we take a look at recent contract settlements and examine how those trends vary from recent previous years. Our view of 2013 and 2014 settlements and what we have so far from 2015 indicates that the Washington State public safety employee wages are a mirror of national wage stagnation. We see flat wage increases with little substantial real wage growth. Whether a growing economy eventually will accelerate these is something we’ll discuss later in this series.
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
This is the first of an 11 part series addressing current economic conditions and wage settlement trends. In this Summer 2015 Wage Series we’ll bring you an update on CPI and economic developments, wage settlements, interest arbitration trends, statewide wage rankings for public safety classifications across the State, and an in-depth analysis of what factors appear to be impacting those rankings and settlements.
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
More often than not, employers prefer a fixed percent COLA adjustment, as opposed to a number tied to the CPI. Having a fixed percentage COLA number written in the “out year” labor contract settlements provides the employer a “known” number to plug into their budgets. While your members have often preferred the ability to keep full pace with inflation, the recent falling and erratic CPI numbers pose a new question: Would you be better off with your contract settlements tied to a fixed percentage increase?
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
The recent fall off in gas prices has dramatically impacted the reported inflation rate. The most recent rate reported on the Seattle inflation numbers were through the end of 2014 and, following a dramatic fall in fuel prices, the Seattle number plummeted. Its high number for the year was 2.6% in April and by December that number had dropped to 1.1%. Even more dramatic was the drop of the All-Cities national CPI number to 0.3%. This chart shows the inflation numbers during the course of 2014:
By Jim Cline
The February “Economic and Revenue Update” from the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council provides a good summary of the recent rounds of good economic news both nationally and locally. The key findings by the Revenue Council include that on the national level:
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
In our last blog we reported that the Seattle CPI-W index had dipped slightly to fall closer in line with the national (All-Cities) index. The June Seattle Index was reported at 2.2 while the All-Cities index was 2.0%.
by Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
The one CPI Report that most heavily influences the course of negotiations is the June CPI Report and it was just released this last week.
