Monday morning musings for workplace watchers.
Winning Pay Bump|Tipped Wage Litigation
Paige Smith: Just a handful of months after US House office workers cast the first votes to unionize, the first collective bargaining agreement has been reached, and it touches on one of the thorniest questions of negotiations: pay.
Staffers within the office of Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) came away from contract negotiations with $10,000 more in pay, with junior staffers making an average of $76,000, according to a tweet from the Congressional Workers Union, the primary group organizing House staffers.
The average household income for Washington, D.C. is $154,873, but $76,000 is $31,000 more than the pay floor for House staffers Speaker Nancy Pelosi established earlier this year. Capitol Hill salaries have long been criticized for being less than desirable, often leading to high turnover in congressional offices.
“We’ve seen clear examples of trickle-down benefits for staffers offered throughout this organizing drive even before elections,” a spokesperson for the CWU told Bloomberg Law. “We look forward to many more life changing elections and contracts for Hill staffers in the coming weeks.”
For Levin’s staffers in particular, the agreement could be fleeting. Levin recently lost to fellow Democrat Haley Stevens in a Michigan primary election.
“As staff in Rep. Levin’s office close down operations and look for future employment due to his primary loss, securing an agreement on salary was...
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