ANALYSIS: Union-Negotiated Pay Raises Hit 7% for the First Time

Union negotiators looking to secure wage-related concessions from employers have reached a new benchmark for success. For the first time in decades—and probably ever—labor contracts ratified in the first quarter of 2023 provided union-represented workers with an average first-year pay raise of 7%, according to Bloomberg Law’s latest Quarterly Union Wage Data report.

A 7% wage hike is the highest average payout in a single quarter since at least 2007. And based on the yearly averages that Bloomberg Law has calculated since it began tracking negotiated wage settlements in 1988, it appears unlikely that a quarterly average has ever hit ...