It wasn't long ago when a construction worker in a licensed trade considered "a buck and a truck" a pretty good pay raise for services rendered.

Actually, for virtually all the trades during the 1990s, the annual $1 per hour raise was fairly widespread, although the numbers began to creep up in the latter half of the decade. Some trades got a little more, some a little less. Now, although we have no numbers on how many contractors let their workers use company trucks, we do know the pay raise numbers have improved dramatically.

According to the Construction Labor Research Council, the first year of collectively bargained contracts covering Michigan's unionized construction workers averaged an increase of 4.3 percent, or $1.39 per hour in 2000 - 6 cents per hour more than any other state that had "a sufficient number of settlements to show a meaningful average." On top of that, Michigan's unionized Hardhats also received second-year average wage increases of $1.45 per hour, or 4.2 percent, again tops in the nation.

The numbers applied to 32,066 unionized Michigan construction workers, whose collective bargaining contracts, on average, beat out the national averages by two-tenths of a percent for both 2000 and 2001.

The pay figures in Michigan and nationwide, "represent a slow, but long-term, upward trend in average annual settlement amounts that has been occurring since 1994," the CLRC said. It's about time. Ninety percent of the industry's contractors said in a survey that "shortage of trained field help" was at the top of their "concerns" list in 2000. The problem is that field help haven't stayed around to be trained - much less make a career out of construction - with the stagnant wages that have prevailed and the industry's reputation as a lousy way to make a living. Other notes on the industry as we turn the corner on a new year:

• Industry wages have increased, but so has inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index. The CPI has accelerated to about 3.5 percent per year.
• The nation's construction unemployment rate was "historically low" during 2000, said the CLRC, between 6-7 percent. At the same time, construction employment was at record levels. Another 200,000 jobs were added in 2000, bringing the nation's total construction workforce close to 6.75 million.
• The open shop is paying more for its labor, too, but in a manner outside of a collective bargaining agreement. Nonunion contractors use incentives like "per diem pay," travel allowances and premiums for attendance, completion and production to boost pay. Overall, nonunion workers received an average increase of $38.71 per day in such payments, Cockshaw's Newsletter reported last year.
• Wages of nonunion workers still lag behind those union workers. On average, according to PAS Inc., nonunion electricians are the highest paid craft, at $17.76 per hour in wages. On average, general laborers are on the low end, at $11.31 per hour in wages.