This article continues are series on recent contract settlement trends. It uses city police 2022 settlements as the data source, but these trends seem to apply generally to other public safety occupations. In this article we cover the impact of location on contract settlements.

This article continues our series on recent developments influencing contract negotiations. One of the most important influences on contract negotiations (and arbitration) is contract settlements, especially among comparable jurisdictions. There have been some unusual patterns that have developed in Washington public safety labor negotiations, and these seem to be highly influenced by external economic events.

In the last couple of articles in this series, we discussed the state of local government revenues and their potential impact on negotiations. In this article, we discuss how the differences between the structure of local economies can impact negotiations. We also discuss some significant shifts in revenue distribution that have occurred in recent years, especially since the pandemic.

In the last article in this series, we briefly discussed the Washington tax system and how it impacts local government revenues. In this article, we will discuss the current revenue situation.

In the previous articles in this series, we’ve discussed inflation and inflation predictions. We have also discussed expectations for whether there will be a recession and how that might impact the job market. Two other important economic factors to discuss, as they will have some impact on labor contract settlements, are the tax revenues and budgets of local governments.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.