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.
December 21, 2016 By
Wage Series Part 8: Does Assessed Valuation Matter?
December 21, 2016 By
Wage Series Part 7: Does Size Matter?
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
In 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 2016 wage rankings.
December 20, 2016 By
Part 6: Dispatcher and Records Clerk Wages
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
This is part 6 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.
December 20, 2016 By
Wage Series Part 5: Firefighter and Corrections Rankings
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
This is Part 5 of our 10 Part 2016 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.
December 20, 2016 By
Wage Series Part 4: How Do Your Wages Stack Up: Statewide Commissioned City and County Wage Rankings
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.
December 19, 2016 By
Wage Series Part 3: Current Economic Conditions
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
This is the third article in our 10 part series reporting on contract settlement trends. This article highlights some of the recent economic developments most likely to impact your negotiations outlook.
December 18, 2016 By
Wage Series Part 2: Recent Wage Settlement Trends in Washington Public Safety Labor Contracts — An Ever So Slightly Rising Trend Line
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
This is the second part of our 10 part Fall 2016 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 2015 and 2016 settlements and what we have so far from 2017 indicates that the Washington State public sector wages are a mirror of national wage stagnation. We see some wage increases with little substantial “real wage” growth (as measured once controlled for inflation). Whether a growing economy eventually will accelerate these is something we’ll discuss later in this series.
August 21, 2015 By
Wage Series Part 11: 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.
July 24, 2015 By
Wage Series Part 6: June Inflation Report Shows Rising but Still Low Inflation, Seattle not as Low as All-Cities Index
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.
July 24, 2015 By
BLS Reports Wages Rising at a Rate Greater than Inflation
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:
