Age is included as well, since federal law only covers workers over 40.

"It's going to make a huge difference to workers covered by the bill who live in the most expensive part of the nation."

The workers covered by the contract earn $32,000 a year on average.

For most of the workers covered by the agreement, the changes will mean about $2,400 in additional base income over four years.

"We believe it's extremely important to focus on the needs of the 75,000 workers covered by the current union contract."

He added that $30,000 is the average salary for workers covered by the contract.

The next year, companies with 50 to 200 employees must cover workers, but not dependents.

The 36 new contracts, which covered 127,000 workers, raised wages 3.1 percent on average in their first year.

That would cover 20 million workers in 100,000 single-employer plans.

But he is hardly alone in covering workers and issues that relate to them.