Union-Negotiated Wage Gains Slip Downward in 2019

Unions negotiated lower first-year pay raises in recent weeks, pushing overall first-year 2019 wage gains down in three major sectors, according to Bloomberg Law data.

Employees have seen an average first-year wage increase of 3.1 percent in collective bargaining agreements so far in 2019, according to a Feb. 25 biweekly update of Bloomberg Law’s database of U.S. wage settlements. That’s down slightly from 3.2 percent as of Feb. 11 but on par with the same period from 2018, when the average increase was also 3.1 percent.

Manufacturing, nonmanufacturing, and state and local government wage hikes all moved down for the ...