Washington Public Sector Labor Negotiations Blog
Trends and Developments Concerning Washington Public Labor Contracts
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
In the last three parts of the Wage Series, we have discussed State wage rankings for the various public safety classifications. In the next three parts, we turn to a discussion of what factors might influence, or explain, at least in part, those wage rankings. [Read more…]
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
This is part six of our continued series on Washington Public Safety Employee wages. In this issue, we report on wage rankings for 911 Dispatchers and Police Records Clerks.
By Jim Cline
The March 2013 report of the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council identifies the continued mixed economic signals from both the National and State economy. The key findings of the Council for the National economy included:
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
This is part five of our eleven-part Spring 2013 Wage Series. In our last article, we covered Commissioned Deputy and Police Officer Wages. In this article, we turn to Firefighter and Corrections Officer Wages. We’ll cover Dispatcher and Records Clerk Wages in the next article.
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 eleven-part series reporting on contract settlement trends. This article highlights some of the recent economic developments most likely to impact your negotiations outlook.
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
This is the second article in our eleven-part, Spring 2013 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 2012 settlements and what we have so far from 2013, indicates a trend towards rising settlements, but not a full return to the robust, pre Great Recession settlements. Whether a healthy economy will accelerate these trends further, is something we’ll discuss later in this series.
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
T
his is the first of an eleven-part series addressing current economic conditions and wage settlement trends. In this Spring 2013 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 Christopher Casillas
The Washington State Employment Security Department released its monthly employment report for Feburary 2013 today, confirming that a recent trend in new jobs and a drop in the unemployment rate is no mirage, and may be gathering steam. The headline numbers indicate that the State, particularly the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett region, is seeing a strong rebound in new jobs, specifically: [Read more…]
By Christopher Casillas
The State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released its updated March revenue report and forecast today, showing some improvements in the State’s budget for the current biennium. The revenue forecast for the current biennium has been increased by $58.8 million by the Council. This reports an improvement over the November 2012 forecast, based on an increase in likely tax collections during the current biennium. The State now predicts that revenue into its General Fund for the 2011-2013 biennium, will most likely come in at $30.536 billion. The Council noted that uncertainty remains high due to unknown economic impacts, like the federal sequestration, as well as ongoing economic crises around the globe.
