ANALYSIS: Bargaining Brought Huge Raises to Union Workers in Q4

Unionized employers made massive wage-based concessions to labor in contract negotiations in fourth-quarter 2021, agreeing to provide pay raises of a scope not seen in collective bargaining in at least 15 years, according to Bloomberg Law’s latest Quarterly Union Wage Data report.

First-year wage increases in union contracts ratified in the fourth quarter averaged 4.7%, up from 3.9% in Q3 and 3.1% in Q2. This is the first time since at least 2007, when Bloomberg Law began tracking quarter-by-quarter wage increases, that union-negotiated wage raises have averaged more than 4% in a single quarter.

When lump-sum amounts—such as signing bonuses ...