Wages Breakdown for the Tentative Agreement

After more than three months of negotiations, ASEs have secured a strong Tentative Agreement (TA) that we are now voting to ratify. This TA contains the highest raises ASEs at UW have ever won—though not everything that we deserve, these raises will put hundreds more dollars back into ASEs’ pockets every month, and will mark a major improvement to ourliving conditions.

Here’s a picture of base wages over the life of this contract (12%/10%/10%): 

In addition to these raises to base-rate ASE salaries, this contract includes guaranteed raises of 3%/2%/2% for variable-rate departments (above base-rate), who had no guaranteed raises in our last contract, as well as 8%/5%5% for hourly ASEs. 

These raises were hard-fought in a city with average rents ranging from $1500-$2000/month for studio and one-bedroom apartments. Addressing the cost of living crisis was a major concern for ASEs and a major goal in negotiations. This contract makes real progress toward addressing the fact that far too many ASEs are rent-burdened, live paycheck to paycheck, and struggle to buy groceries and make ends meet. 

These raises also ensure that UW keeps up with peer institutions. The University of Washington has fallen far behind peer public sector universities in recent years–but with this contract, ASEs have stopped that slide backward.

The decision to ratify the contract is fundamentally a question about strategies to build our collective power. Tomorrow, you’ll receive an email with multiple perspectives on ratification – you can submit your own statement here. 

Check our more resources as you make a decision about how to vote:

• RSVP for information sessions and office hours
• Ratification Vote FAQ
• Form to submit ratification vote statements for dissemination to membership
• Tentative Agreement Summary
• Bargaining Team Statements (coming soon)
• What this contract means for each department, both variable and base (coming soon)