construction union labor salaries post gains, says report

The Washington-based Construction Labor Research Council has just released a new survey looking at wage costs in the industry across the country.

The annual Union Labor Costs in Construction surveys trends for eighteen separate crafts in nine geographical regions of the country.

According to the report, the average wage increase for union jobs in the industry saw a 2.8 percent rise last year, up from around 1.7 percent in 2010.

That 2.8 percent figure, according to the study, is slated to increase to around 3 percent between now and 2020.

Overall, average union wage increases have been on a steady upward trajectory since late 2011, after suffering a significant decline during the Great Recession.

Individual union-negotiated worker benefit packages, which include health benefits and retirement plans, were at their highest in the Southwest Pacific and their lowest in the Southeast.

Earlier this year, the council released its regularly published Settlements Report, which pegged the states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, comprising the Northwest Region, as having the greatest labor construction wage increases at 4.6 percent.

That number was more than double the increase recorded in the states of the Mountain Northern Plains Region made up of Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

By Garry Boulard

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