July 31, 2013
By Jim Cline
Recent economic news has been characterized as tepid at best, but the most recent Washington State Department of Revenue report offers one of our clearest recent indicators that a solid economic recovery may be underway, at least in Washington State. The recently released Department of Revenue First Quarter Sales tax numbers show a statewide jump from the preceding 12 months (Quarter 1, 2012) of 8 percent.
Filed Under: Economic Developments, Economics
July 31, 2013
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
The just-released June CPI numbers show that inflation continues to be low. The Seattle CPI-W index came in at 1.2% up 1/10 of a percentage from April but down from 2.7% from last June. The All-Cities index came in at 1.8%, up from 0.9 in April and slightly up from last June’s 1.6%. This graph shows the movement over the past year.
April 19, 2013
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
As part of our spring 2013 wage series, it seemed important to interject a discussion about how arbitrators have ruled in the recent economic climate. I recently spoke on many of the same points at the Annual PERC sponsored Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) Conference, so this seems like an appropriate time for this review.
Filed Under: Wage Settlements
April 16, 2013
By Jim Cline
The just-released home sales data indicates some continued improvement in the local housing market. This is also a good sign of a broader recovery not only of the Seattle area economy, but possibly a statewide recovery. As we recently reported, the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council continues to indicate that the Washington State economy is recovering at a somewhat stronger rate than the national economy.
Filed Under: Economics
April 16, 2013
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 discuss geographic location and the effect of various labor markets on public safety wages.
Filed Under: Wage Settlements
April 12, 2013
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 discuss to what extent assessed valuation influences that ranking.
Filed Under: Other Contract Surveys, Wage Settlements
April 9, 2013
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.
Filed Under: Wage Settlements
April 5, 2013
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.
Filed Under: Wage Settlements
April 5, 2013
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.
Filed Under: Economic Developments, Economics
April 3, 2013
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.
