ANALYSIS: Union Negotiators Rode H1’s Market Wave to Big Raises

Union negotiators have been capitalizing on the labor market while it’s hot, securing pay raises for their members that are nearly twice as high as they were less than two years ago.

Statistics in Bloomberg Law’s Quarterly Union Wage Data report show that union contracts ratified in second-quarter 2022 called for an average first-year pay raise of 5.3%—the highest average raise in at least 15 years. From Q3 2020 through Q1 2021, first-year raises in union contracts averaged only 2.8%.

With signing bonuses and other lump-sum payments added to the calculations, union wages increased at an even higher rate. First-year ...