YOUNGSTOWN — A three-year contract with the city’s police patrol union that gives members 4% annual raises, retroactive to last year, as well as an additional $1 per hour for this year and 2027 is up for a Wednesday vote by city council.

The union, which represents 82 members, already has approved the contract.

It is highly unlikely that council will reject the tentative agreement, but if it wants to, it would have to do so quickly.

A Feb. 6 letter sent by the firm the city hired to negotiate the contract states rejection must be done “within 30 days of the submission. Failure to act will result in agreement by default.”

The contract provides the largest annual increases to police officers in decades and possibly since the patrol union started collective bargaining.

During negotiations, the union wanted the most-senior officers — those with at least nine years on the force — to make $35 per hour, $72,800 annually, at the start of 2027. Between the 4% annual raises and the $1 hourly increase, those at the top of the pay scale would go from $30.04 per hour, $62,479 annually, in 2024 to $34.83 per hour, $72,444 annually, on Jan. 1, 2027.

The union also wanted entry-level pay to increase from $21 per hour, $43,680 annually, in 2024 to $25 per hour at the start of 2027. Between the raises and the $1 hourly increase, starting pay will be $24.66 per hour, $51,297 annually, on Jan. 1, 2027.

Also with this contract, starting salaries for officers increase by 17.67%, retroactive to Jan. 1, from what was paid in 2024.

As part of this new contract, those who work the afternoon second shift will continue to receive an additional 50 cents per hour on top of the raise and $1 hourly increase while those working the overnight shift will continue to get an additional 60 cents per hour plus the raise and $1 hourly increase.

That means the most-senior officers working afternoon shifts will make $35.33 per hour by Jan. 1, 2027, and those working overnight will get $35.43 per hour on the same date. That works out to $73,486 and $73,694, respectively, in annual pay in 2027.

But those who work the dayturn will no longer get an additional 40 cents per hour starting this year.

Those shift pay increases, not built into base salaries, were included in the previous union contract.

Upon ratification of the contract, those officers with less than two years of service will be elevated to the third step pay rate. Their salaries will go from $21 per hour to $24.80 per hour, $51,574 annually, retroactive to Jan. 1. That’s an 18.1% salary increase from 2024.

The city’s ranking police officers’ union, which currently has 41 members, has a “me-too” clause in its contract, meaning it automatically gets the same raises as the patrol union. Its members had negotiated a 2.5% increase for 2025 so the ranking officers will get an additional 1.5% retroactive pay hike for last year and then 4% annually for 2026 and 2027.

With the ratification of this contract, the patrol union members will see their hazardous duty pay increase from $850 annually to $1,000. The pay is a bonus for working a job that is considered hazardous.

The patrol officers’ annual uniform allowance is going from $1,085 to $1,300, the annual bulletproof vest allotment is going from $800 to $1,250, and those working on holidays will get double time rather than the current 1.75 times their hourly wages.

The contract calls for increases to those having college degrees. Those with associate degrees will receive $450 from the current $405 annual payment. Those with a bachelor’s degree will be paid $700 annually from the current $470 bonus. New to the contract is a $950 annual bonus for those with a master’s degree.

City council in December 2024 gave 10% bonuses to every Youngstown police officer and emergency 911 dispatcher from $882,762 not used to hire new police officers from a $1.2 million American Rescue Plan grant the city received in 2022.

The city agreed in November 2021 to a three-year contract with the police patrol union that increased the starting salaries of officers by 27.4% in 2022, reduced by three years the amount of time for officers to get to the top of the pay scale from 12 years to nine years of experience, provided the per-hour bonus pay, gave those at the top of the scale a $1,000 lump-sum payment, and provided the biggest pay increases in more than 15 years — 2% in 2022 and then 2.5% in both 2023 and 2024.

This police patrol contract sets the new pay percentage raise rates for all other city unions for 2027 because the city does pattern bargaining. That means that whatever one union receives for a given year is what is negotiated for others. When that doesn’t happen, the difference is made up in the next contract.

The firefighters union set the 4% pay increase for this year. With the police patrol contract, it will be 4% in 2027.