Wage Series Part 13: Fish and Wildlife Officers Guild

By Jim Cline and Troy Thornton

This is the second of two articles on recent Interest Arbitration decisions as part of our Annual Wage survey. A summary of all recent arbitrations since 2008 is available on the Premium website. This article covers a September 2020 decision by Arbitrator Jeffrey Jacobs involving the Washington State Fish & Wildlife Officers Guild (FWOG).   While there were a few decisions last fall involving State employee bargaining units that are unique to those groups, this decision and the previously discussed Clark County decision are the only arbitration decisions involving public safety employee wage arbitration since the pandemic. (There is a November 2020 decision involving the Snohomish County corrections officers that only concerns their health insurance coverage.)

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Wage Series Part 12: Clark County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild

By Jim Cline and Troy Thornton

This is part 12 of our Annual wage series. In this portion of the series, we turn to a couple of 2020 arbitration decisions as we attempt to assess how these decisions may or may not impact overall settlement trends. In this article, we discuss a decision issued  by Arbitrator Richard Ahearn involving the Clark County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild. In our next blog, we’ll discuss an arbitration involving the State Wildlife Officers.

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Wage Series Part 11: Does Geographic Location Matter?

Wage Series Part 11: Does Geographic Location Matter?

By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer

In the previous two articles in this wage series, we discussed the extent to which population and assessed valuation correlated with wage rankings.  In this article, we discussed geographic location and the effect of various labor markets on public safety wages.

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Wage Series Part 10: Does Assessed Valuation Matter?

Wage Series Part 10: Does Assessed Valuation Matter?

By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer

In the last issue we discussed whether – and to what extent — population influenced a jurisdiction’s relative wage ranking.  In this article, we discussed to what extent assessed valuation influences that ranking.

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Wage Series Part 9: Does Size Matter?

Wage Series Part 9: Does Size Matter?

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 part of the wage series, we run our series of articles on factors that might influence or explain, at least in part, those wage rankings, with updated 2019 wage rankings. 

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Wage Series Part 8: Dispatcher and Records Clerk wages

Wage Series Part 8: Dispatcher and Records Clerk wages

By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer

This is part 8 of our continuing series on Washington public safety employee wages.  In this issue, we report on wage rankings for 911 dispatchers and police records clerks.

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Wage Series Part 7: Firefighter and Corrections Rankings

Wage Series Part 7:  Firefighter and Corrections Rankings

By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer

This is Part 7 of our multi-part 2021 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. 

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Wage Series Part 6: How Do Your Wages Stack Up: Statewide Commissioned City and County Wage Rankings

Wage Series Part 6: How Do Your Wages Stack Up:  Statewide Commissioned City and County Wage Rankings

By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer

In part 6 of our ongoing 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.

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Wage Series Part 5: Economic Conditions

By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer

This is the fifth in our extensive series on current negotiation conditions and trends. In this article, we focus on recent economic developments.

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Wage Series Part 4: The Impact of COVID on Recent Wage Settlement Trends in Washington Public Safety Labor Contracts

Wage Series Part 4:  The Impact of COVID on Recent Wage Settlement Trends in Washington Public Safety Labor Contracts

By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer

This is the fourth part of our early 2021 wages series. In the last article in our 2021 wage series, we looked at all Washington public safety settlements from 2019 to 2021. That report showed a downward trend in 2021 settlements.

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