Unions Negotiate Record High Wage Increases in 2023

As reported in Bloomberg Law’s Quarterly Union Wage Data report, union contracts that were negotiated in 2023 gave working people an average first-year wage increase of 6.6%, the highest average pay raise for any year since they began tracking union wage settlements 36 years ago. The 99% of union contracts negotiated in 2023 included some type of first-year wage increase.

Those wage increases make an enormous difference in the lives of working people—helping people buy homes, save for retirement and build a future for our families. In newly released data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, union households have 1.7 times the median wealth of nonunion households.

Not only that, but union membership helps narrow the racial wealth gap by ensuring that workers of color get the same fair deal that everyone else gets. While union membership increases median wealth for white households by 37 percent, it increases median wealth for households of color by 167 percent –228 percent. And whether you went to college or entered an apprenticeship program, the median wealth of union households is greater than that of nonunion households across every education level. #ItsBetterInAUnion.