Collective bargaining settlements reported to the Construction Labor Research Council (CLRC) between January and September of this year resulted in an average first-year wage-and-benefits increase of $0.64 or 1.3 percent – about half of the $1.29 or 2.7 percent average reported around the same time last year.  Similar to findings reported in its June report, CLRC reported widespread occurrences of wage freezes in its latest Wage and Benefit Settlements Report, and even some reductions.  “No increase was negotiated in about one quarter of contracts,” CLRC found. 

CLRC also continued to find fewer multi-year agreements than typical for the industry.  In cases where multi-year agreements were negotiated, the parties, on average, agreed to higher increases in the latter years.  The average second-year increase in newly negotiated multi-year agreements was $0.92 or 1.8 percent, and the average third-year increase was $1.35 or 2.6 percent. 

Of the 190 settlements covered by the report, 105 were from the East North Central Region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, west Virginia, and Wisconsin), where the average first-year increase was $0.97 or 1.8 percent.  Twenty-seven reported settlements came from the Middle Atlantic Region (District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania), where the average first-year increase was about $0.65 or 1.3 percent – also about half the average reported for the region a year ago.  Craft variation tended to reflect the regional location of the settlements, according to CLRC.

The complete report is posted along with other CLRC reports on the Labor & HR Topical Resources page of AGC’s website at www.agc.org/labor/topicalresources.  Select “Collective Bargaining” from the first pull-down menu and “Collective Bargaining Agreement Data” from the second for links to the reports.  For a searchable database of collectively bargained wage and fringe benefit rates, go to www.agc.org/cbrates.  

Collective bargaining AGC chapters are reminded to kindly send all settlements information to CLRC promptly upon completion.  Information may be submitted to CLRC by e-mail at clrc@clrc.biz, by fax to (202) 347-8442, or by mail to 1750 New York Ave., NW, Washington, DC  20006.
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