The Boeing engineer contract offer now in front of SPEEA's Puget Sound Professional and Technical units would raise pay by a guaranteed 10% on Oct. 2, as long as members ratify it by Oct. 1. Electronic voting runs from Sept. 24 through Oct. 1, 2026. The current contracts expire Oct. 6, and a strike could begin as early as Oct. 7, according to KIRO 7 and the Lynnwood Times. The result was not known when this article went to press.
The vote covers more than 16,000 engineers, scientists and technical workers. The Lynnwood Times reports 12,696 people in the Professional unit and 3,959 in the Technical unit. Most work in Puget Sound, with smaller groups in Oregon, California and Utah. Aerospace suppliers are not at the table, but they hire from the same pool of stress, design, manufacturing and certification engineers. Whether or not the offer passes, it tells tier-1 and tier-2 shops where the largest airframer in the country thinks engineering pay has to go.
What the offer guarantees
Boeing made the revised offer on Sept. 11 and updated it on Sept. 17. Here is what its SPEEA negotiations page and updates archive describe:
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10% guaranteed increase at ratification. "If this contract offer is ratified by Oct. 1, the 10% guaranteed wage increase would be effective Oct. 2 and would be reflected in your Oct. 22 paycheck."
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Another 4% guaranteed increase in March 2027.
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A 6% annual wage pool in each of 2028, 2029 and 2030. According to Boeing, the "6% annual wage pools include a 4% minimum guarantee." Managers allocate the remaining 2% based on performance and where each employee sits in the salary range.
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A higher incentive target. The employee incentive plan target goes to 7% from 5%, starting in 2027, with the first payout in 2028.
Boeing sums it up as "34% in total wage funds over four years, with 26% of that fully guaranteed for everyone." Those two numbers answer different questions. The 34% is the total money going into wage pools. It is not a raise every engineer receives. The 26% is the part every covered employee gets no matter how the pools are divided.
Boeing's 26% is a simple sum: 10 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4. When the increases compound, the guaranteed floor comes to about 28.7% (1.10 × 1.044). That is our arithmetic, not a Boeing figure. A supplier modeling its competitive position should use this compounded floor as the baseline. It is the minimum movement a Boeing Puget Sound engineer can expect if the deal is ratified. The 34% figure is the upper reference point, and it is spread unevenly across the workforce.
Why Boeing improved the offer
Members rejected the first offer in August by wide margins. The Professional Unit voted 64.25% against (7,238 no, 4,027 yes), and the Technical Unit voted 71.87% against (2,795 no, 1,094 yes). Strike authorization passed with 87.82% of professionals and 89.71% of technical workers, the Lynnwood Times reported.
That first offer included a 3% increase retroactive to Feb. 20. Boeing described its total wage funds as 28.5%, according to its Aug. 5 update. SPEEA described 29.4% in compounded wage pools over four years, or 31.9% once promotions and out-of-sequence increases are included. The revised offer changes the structure more than the total. Most of the money is now guaranteed, and the largest guaranteed step lands right away.
"We took the feedback we heard from our employees and SPEEA's bargaining teams to deliver an offer with more value that includes guaranteed pay increases and a larger wage pool," Boeing's Ben Nimmergut told the Lynnwood Times.
Both SPEEA Bargaining Unit Councils recommended acceptance by the required 60% supermajorities, KIRO 7 reported. The Professional Unit council said the offer meets "most of the needs of the members." The Technical Unit council was more cautious and told members to "examine both the advantages and limitations of the proposed agreement."
Where the pay bar sits
Boeing projects that the average professional-unit salary will rise from $152,000 to $208,000 over the life of the contract, and the average technical-unit salary from $119,000 to $163,000, according to the Lynnwood Times. Here is how those figures compare with federal benchmarks:
| Benchmark | Figure | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Boeing Professional unit average, today (Boeing projection) | $152,000 | Lynnwood Times | | Boeing Professional unit average, end of contract (Boeing projection) | $208,000 | Lynnwood Times | | Aerospace engineers, U.S. mean, May 2025 | $142,060 | BLS OEWS | | Aerospace engineers, U.S. median, May 2025 | $134,960 | BLS OOH | | Aerospace engineers, median in aerospace product and parts manufacturing | $137,030 | BLS OOH | | Aerospace engineers, top 10% | over $205,890 | BLS OOH | | Mechanical engineers, U.S. mean, May 2025 | $113,610 | BLS OEWS | | Mechanical engineers, U.S. median, May 2025 | $104,110 | BLS OOH |
Aerospace product and parts manufacturing employs 38% of the country's 67,710 aerospace engineers, so the $137,030 industry median is the most direct federal benchmark for supplier engineering pay. It sits about $15,000 below Boeing's current Puget Sound professional average. These are different populations. SPEEA's professional unit includes many disciplines and experience levels, and the BLS data is from May 2025. The direction of the gap is clear, though. Boeing's projected end-of-contract average of $208,000 is above the threshold for today's national top 10% of aerospace engineers.
Puget Sound: the gap grows on day one
The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue market already pays well above the national average. In May 2025, architecture and engineering occupations there averaged $60.55 an hour, compared with $51.36 nationally, and made up 2.4% of local employment, compared with 1.7% nationally, according to BLS. The all-occupations mean was $44.13, compared with $33.54 nationally.
The most recent occupation-level Seattle data we could verify is from May 2023. At that time the metro had 5,090 aerospace engineers with a $151,700 mean and 3,770 mechanical engineers with a $119,180 mean (BLS May 2023 metro estimates). Those figures are three years old and should be treated as a floor.
The immediate math: a 10% step on Boeing's $152,000 professional average is about $15,200. On the $119,000 technical average it is about $11,900. If the deal passes, a Puget Sound supplier's pay gap to Boeing grows by that much in one paycheck cycle, before any supplier merit cycle comes around. On the guaranteed steps alone, the $152,000 average would compound to about $195,600 by 2030 (our arithmetic). Boeing's own projection is $208,000, which also reflects the discretionary pool money, promotions and workforce mix.
Wichita: a Boeing town again
Wichita is a different labor market. Boeing closed its acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems on Dec. 8, 2025, bringing about 15,000 employees at five sites into the company: Wichita, Dallas, Tulsa, Prestwick and Belfast, according to Boeing. Wichita suppliers that used to compete with a tier-1 for engineering talent now compete with the OEM directly.
Wages there are lower. In May 2025, Wichita architecture and engineering occupations averaged $46.44 an hour, below the $51.36 national figure, while making up 2.6% of local employment, compared with 1.7% nationally (BLS). That concentration is higher than Seattle's. The May 2025 release does not break out individual engineering occupations. The May 2023 table lists 670 mechanical engineers with a $90,850 mean and no aerospace engineer row (BLS).
Boeing's most recent Wichita settlement is not an engineering contract. On Jan. 30, 2026, SPEEA's Wichita Technical & Professional Unit, about 1,600 people that the union describes as "nonexempt employees and exempt salaried non-professional employees," ratified a 4.8-year agreement by a 671 to 111 vote (SPEEA; Leeham News). The deal provides 20% in wage pools over 58 months (5% in July 2026, 3.5% in March 2027, 4% in March 2028, 3.5% in March 2029 and 4% in March 2030), a 2% annual guaranteed minimum and a $6,000 ratification bonus. "The average WTPU-represented worker will be making more than $117,000 a year when this contract is done in 2030," negotiation chair James Hatfield said.
Wichita's engineers and scientists belong to a separate unit, the Wichita Engineering Unit, whose contract expires Dec. 1, 2028. That negotiation will take place with the Puget Sound terms in plain view. Wichita employers are already under pressure: a Wichita worker quoted by Leeham News pointed to competition from Textron Aviation as a reason wages need to rise to "attract and retain high-skilled laborers."
The Southeast: indirect pressure
The SPEEA Puget Sound contract does not set pay in the Southeast aerospace clusters, but it does shape what a move to Boeing looks like for an engineer willing to relocate. In May 2025, Charleston-North Charleston had 340 aerospace engineers with a $145,750 mean (location quotient 2.00) and 940 mechanical engineers with a $113,940 mean (BLS). Huntsville had 4,880 aerospace engineers with a $135,660 mean and a location quotient of 42.03, meaning the occupation is about 42 times as concentrated there as in the U.S. overall. It also had 2,150 mechanical engineers with a $115,110 mean (BLS).
Huntsville aerospace pay is below the national aerospace mean, and the market is highly concentrated. Employers there compete mostly with one another. The Puget Sound offer matters most for the mobile end of that workforce: experienced stress, loads and certification engineers whose skills carry across programs.
What suppliers should budget: a framework
We have no supplier pay survey or turnover data behind this section. It is a way to test engineering compensation budgets against the verified numbers above.
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Model the floor, not the headline. Run a guaranteed-floor scenario (26% simple, about 28.7% compounded, over four years) and a full-pool scenario at Boeing's 34%. If your planned engineering increases fall well short of the floor scenario, your gap to Boeing's Puget Sound pay will widen every year of the contract, including for your strongest people.
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Look at timing as well as size. The largest guaranteed step lands Oct. 2 if the deal is ratified. A supplier on a spring merit cycle will be behind by a full 10% for several months. An off-cycle market adjustment for exposed roles costs less than replacing a senior engineer mid-program.
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Target retention money. Across-the-board raises at Boeing's pace will not fit most mid-market margins. Identify the roles whose loss would stall a first-article inspection, a certification package or a customer audit. For most shops that means stress, certification and senior manufacturing engineers. Price retention adjustments for those roles first.
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Count total cash, not only base pay. Boeing's incentive target rises to 7% from 5% starting in 2027. If your bonus plan pays less or pays out less reliably, the difference in total cash is larger than the base-pay comparison shows.
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Build labor escalation into long-term agreements. Engineering labor is part of the cost of sustaining work and design changes. Escalation clauses tied to 2% or 3% annual labor assumptions will not match a customer whose own engineering floor is 4% a year after the first-year jump.
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Segment by market. A Puget Sound shop faces the direct gap. A Wichita shop faces Boeing, Textron Aviation and a 2028 engineering negotiation. A Huntsville or Charleston shop mostly faces local rivals, plus the occasional relocation offer.
What to watch
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The Oct. 1 ratification result. If it passes, the 10% shows up in Oct. 22 paychecks, and supplier retention conversations will begin soon after.
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Oct. 7. If the offer fails, that is the earliest date a strike could begin. For suppliers, the near-term question would then be delivery schedules and engineering dispositions, not pay.
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The next BLS OEWS release. Occupation-level May 2025 data for Seattle and Wichita engineers would replace the 2023 figures and show how much of the Boeing effect is already in the local market.
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The Wichita Engineering Unit contract, which expires Dec. 1, 2028.
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