Washington Public Sector Labor Negotiations Blog
Trends and Developments Concerning Washington Public Labor Contracts
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
Earlier in the wage series we 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 2015 wage rankings.
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
In the last blog article we addressed the recent .5% gap between the “U” and “W” indices. We discussed whether over time there was a significant difference between the CPI-W and the CPI-U, explaining that there was not:
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
In our July 24th blog article we reported on the June CPI and noted the wide spread between the “U” and “W” inflation indices and promised to provide an explanation as to the differences in these inflation measures. We cover that in today’s report.
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
This is part 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 and Kate Kremer
In our last article covering CPI we reported on the dramatic recent fall off in inflation (below 0%) numbers. We also predicted that, as to the pivotal June CPI report, the number would show an increase but that “we are not anticipating that these numbers will leap up anywhere near the 2% mark.” In fact, the June CPI numbers are out and they do show a turnaround in inflation numbers and numbers well short of the normal 2% mark.
By Jim Cline
One additional sign of good economic news this week came in the form of a Bureau of Labor Statistics Second Quarter Wage Report. The BLS, the data reporting branch of the Department of Labor reports that despite the low rate of inflation, reports wages are rising, 2.7% as to the period one year ago:
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
This is Part 5 of our 11 Part Summer 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 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.
