Wages are extremely important in contract negotiations. Everyone, employees and employers alike, want to make more money, right? In contract negotiations, the discussion of how employees will be paid is usually a hot topic and more than likely will include overtime, differentials, and sometimes even a two-tier system. But, when a contract is going to cover any length of time, union officials will want to consider the time value of money and the effect on how employee pay will be able to keep up with inflation. To address this issue, unions may want to push for including anescalator(Links to an external site.)orcost-of-living clause(Links to an external site.)in the contract. Research more about escalator clauses and COLAs and discuss what you learned. As a union official, do you believe this topic would be important to include in negotiations? Why or why not? Given the CPI-U and inflation rate, if an employee is making $10 an hour, what would be the increase in wages? Should there be a decrease in wages if these figures go down? Make sure you provide the CPI-U and inflation rate you found in your research and any URLs used in your research. From a management standpoint, do you believe this topic would be important to include in negotiations? Why or why not? What type of counteroffer would you propose if the union demanded a COLA? Why? Remember, your job as a manager is to help the business be profitable and to keep stockholders happy