July 28, 2021
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
The “All-Cities” index is published monthly and the “Seattle” and other regional indices are published every other month but of all those reports, it is the “June” numbers that are the most watched for their potential impact on contract negotiations. While some CBAs look towards the inflation report for different months, the vast majority of contracts that specifically apply CPI use the June numbers because they come out in mid-July about the time most negotiations are launching.
June 15, 2021
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
Spring Blip. For some time, we had been predicting a bump in the upcoming Spring CPI numbers. As the April and May numbers materialized, that prediction proved accurate. The question now is what lies ahead.
May 5, 2021
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.)
Filed Under: Interest Arbitration
April 22, 2021
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.
Filed Under: Interest Arbitration
April 12, 2021
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.
Filed Under: CPI, Economic Developments, Economics
April 9, 2021
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.
Filed Under: CPI, Economic Developments, Economics
April 8, 2021
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.
Filed Under: CPI, Economic Developments, Economics
April 7, 2021
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.
Filed Under: CPI, Economic Developments, Economics
April 6, 2021
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.
Filed Under: CPI, Economic Developments, Economics
April 5, 2021
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.
