The Seattle City Council approved new contracts Tuesday for more than 7,000 city workers across 16 different labor unions that will raise wages, catch up on back pay, and expand benefits.

But all eyes are on a deal that falls outside those bounds as details are emerging from an agreement between City Hall and the Seattle Police Officers Guild.

Under the agreements finalized by the council Tuesday, city employees will see a catch-up on raises with a retroactive 5% payout for last year, a 4% bump in 2024, a 2025 raise tied to the regional Consumer Price Index and gated between 2% and 4%. and, in 2026, raises of between 2% and 5% pegged to inflation, Crosscut reports.

The new agreements will also boost wages and benefits for 3,000 non-union employees while also providing raises to 1,500 non-union managerial and executive employees.

The new deals run through 2026.

CHS reported here on union demands during negotiations earlier this year.

The city’s biggest outstanding labor question is also starting to be answered.

Publicola reports details of an agreement between the city and its 1,200-member police union will “includes retroactive wage increases for the past three years that add up to a 23% pay increase.” New cops would see their starting wages jump from around $83,000 to $103,000 per year while those on the force for six months or more will jump in base pay to around $110,000. “The new pay scale would make the starting salary for Seattle police the highest in the region,” Publicola reports.

The union has been working without a contract.

Other details of the reported retroactive agreement have not been released and will become public as the contract moves through the approval process including a final vote by the Seattle City Council. Officials will also need to finalize agreements on contractual details for 2024 and forward.

CHS reported here on efforts to preserve accountability priorities in the negotiations included adding a representative from the Community Police Commission to the bargaining process. Advocates have called for reform amid waves of Office of Police Accountability actions that have resulted in reprimands and training but few instances of demotions or terminations. Also powering the call for reform are findings from analysis of the SPD response to the 2020 protests that centered on a lack of accountability over ineffective and irresponsible crowd control strategies and communication failures by the department’s leaders.

The labor deals come as Seattle is preparing to cut back on investments and services as the city faces a looming $230 million budget hole as inflation has climbed and revenues haven’t fully recovered from the pandemic.

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