BMWED - Amtrak Rates of Pay
The following table link illustrates pay rates resulting from the April 17, 2023 BMWED/Amtrak contract settlement. This is a general list representative of the most common BMWED positions. The agreement provides for an additional 4% increase effective July 1, 2022, a 4% increase effective July 1, 2023, a 2% increase effective January 1, 2024, a 4.5% increase effective July 1, 2024, a 3.25 % increase effective July 1, 2025, a 3.25 % increase effective July 1, 2026, a 3.25 % increase effective July 1, 2027 and a 4.25% increase effective July 1, 2028.
View Current Rate table
BMWED Job Codes and the corresponding positions for Amtrak's Mid-Atlantic and Metropolitan Divisions
Paying Newly Hired Employees
In conjunction with Amtrak’s probationary periods, new hires are further discriminated against by reduced vacation entitlements, vesting periods for unemployment and sickness annuities, and entry rates of pay.
Railroad employers have fought long and hard to choke the earnings of workers. One method of suppressing advancement of the working class is to provide limited wages to newly hired employees. This draconian practice pre-dates Amtrak, carried over from the steam era, the industrial age and beyond. Railroad managers rationalize that new workers don’t know as much as older, more experienced workers and are therefore less valuable. At Amtrak, the value is expressed in paychecks.
Equal pay for equal work is a fundamental right of the working class. Our Union continuously bargains against entry rate reductions and were successful in improving the 5-year/75% entry rate scale (meaning it would take a new worker 5 years to reach 100% pay in yearly 5% increments).
Following is Rule 97 that currently governs entry rates on the Amtrak NEC
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RULE 97 - ENTRY RATES
(a) For the first 12 calendar months of employment employees will be paid 90% of the applicable rates of pay (including COLA).
(b) For the second 12 calendar months of employment employees will be paid 95% of the applicable rates of pay (including COLA).
(c) At the conclusion of the second period specified in (b) above, employees will be paid at 100% of the applicable rates of pay (including COLA).
(d) An employee will be credited with a "month of employment" if the employee retains seniority in that month.
(e) Employees who have had an employment relationship with Amtrak and are rehired will be paid at established rates after completion of a total of twenty-four (24) months of combined service.
(f) Service in a craft not represented by the BMWE shall not be considered in determining periods of employment under this rule.
(g) Employees who have had a previous employment relationship with a carrier in a craft represented by the BMWE and are subsequently hired by Amtrak will receive credit toward completion of the twenty-four (24) month period for any month in which compensated service was performed in such craft, provided that such compensated service last occurred within one year from the date of subsequent employment.
(h) Entry Rates will not be applied to Maintenance of Way Repairmen.
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Download a copy of Rule 97
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 Unions have a substantial impact on the compensation and work lives of both unionized and non-unionized workers. While only 14 percent of nonunion workers have guaranteed pensions, fully 68 percent of union workers do. More than 97 percent of union workers have jobs that provide health insurance benefits, but only 85 percent of nonunion workers do. Unions help employers create a more stable, productive workforce—where workers have a say in improving their jobs.
- Unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and raise compensation, including both wages and benefits, by about 28%.
- Unions reduce wage inequality because they raise wages more for low- and middle-wage workers than for higher-wage workers, more for blue-collar than for white-collar workers, and more for workers who do not have a college degree.
- Strong unions set a pay standard that nonunion employers follow. For example, a high school graduate whose workplace is not unionized but whose industry is 25% unionized is paid 5% more than similar workers in less unionized industries.
- The impact of unions on total nonunion wages is almost as large as the impact on total union wages.
"An Injury To One Is An Injury To All"
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