Heading into a contentious contract cycle, a union negotiating committee wants to frame its wage demands against how department leadership pay has moved over the same years — not because the two are directly comparable, but because the contrast is part of the argument.
The committee looks up senior leadership titles in the relevant department through CompensationAtlas, which shows each individual's full pay history, including promotions and raises, since 2016.
Leadership pay in the department has grown at a noticeably faster rate over the last three years than pay for the title the union represents — a gap that's straightforward to state once both trend lines are pulled from the same source.
Context changes how a demand is heard. A number next to another number is an argument; a number alone is just a number.
The committee presents both trends side by side, sourced to the same live public payroll data, reframing the union's ask as a question of relative growth rather than an isolated request.
Union negotiating and bargaining committees preparing contract proposals, and labor reporters covering a negotiation who want documented pay context on both sides.