Union boss raise dwarfs represented workers'
Melissa Unger, executive director of progressive powerhouse government worker union SEIU 503, received a 16.7% raise in 2025
SEIU 503 executive director Melissa Unger (left), who received a 16.7% year-over-year salary increase in 2025, attends a press conference at the Oregon Capitol in support of a transportation tax increase last year.
Melissa Unger, executive director of the politically dominant Oregon government employee union SEIU 503, received a 16.7% raise from 2024 to 2025, far exceeding the raises the union won for many of its 45,000 members who work for state government, according to union filings recently obtained by Oregon Roundup Foundation.
Unger’s salary in 2025, the most recent year for which information is publicly available, was $185,809, according to the union filing. In 2024, her salary was $163,460, according to filings. The 2024 salary was itself a 14.6% increase over 2023, which in turn was an 11% increase from 2022. Salary figures provided to the U.S. Department of Labor, and cited here, do not include health insurance, retirement or other benefits.
Source: SEIU 503 form LM-2s filed with U.S. Department of Labor
Unger’s 2025 salary hike dwarfs raises the union she leads obtained for represented workers during the same time period. SEIU 503 negotiated a new state employee contract under which workers received a 2.5% raise in February, with another 4% raise due this coming January. On its website, SEIU 503 called the combined 6.5% raises “great cost of living adjustments.”
For its approximately 18,000 home care worker members, SEIU 503 secured raises of $1.25 per hour effective January 1, 2026 and another $1.75 per hour effective January 1, 2027, according to the union’s website. Depending on how many hours a home care worker worked prior to January 1, 2023, which establishes the worker’s base pay rate, those raises were between 5.2% and 6.5% and between 6.9% and 8.2% respectively. A homecare worker making the minimum rate of $20 per hour will have received a total of 14.7% raise over the course of two years, falling short of Unger’s one-year raise.
Table of home care worker raises courtesy SEIU 503
SEIU 503’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment for this story by deadline. ORF requested information on the reasons for Unger’s significant raise, and whether SEIU 503’s board of directors voted on the salary hike.
Avery Horton, a home care worker and member of SEIU 503’s board of directors who is often critical of Unger’s leadership, told ORF via email he does not recall the board approving Unger’s salary or evaluating her performance since November 2024. “There is no objective performance measurement involved in setting [Unger’s] salary increase,” Horton wrote.
Unger’s $22,349 raise in 2025 accompanied a tumultuous year for SEIU 503. The union, which represents Oregon Department of Transportation workers, led the charge for a transportation tax increase that tied close SEIU 503 ally Governor Tina Kotek and other Salem Democrats in knots for much of 2025 and 2026. Kotek repeatedly threatened and then backed away from laying off SEIU-represented ODOT workers if various iterations of the tax hike were not approved. Unger herself appeared publicly at the Capitol in an attempt to rally support. Now, the transportation tax increase is headed for near-certain defeat in next month’s primary election, with SEIU 503 and other left-leaning interest groups largely sitting out what they view as a losing effort.
SEIU 503 boasted $46 million in assets in its report for 2025 to the Labor Department. It reported over $50 million in receipts, most from dues from state and local government employees. It spent a similar amount, including $1.7 million on explicitly political activities and lobbying.
SEIU 503’s influence, and Unger’s salary increases, leveled up with the election of Tina Kotek as governor in 2022. The union donated $1.7 million to Kotek’s 2022 campaign, in which she bested Republican Christine Drazan and independent Betsy Johnson, the largest amount the union has ever given a candidate, according to OPB.
Kotek’s wife, Aimee Kotek Wilson, was formerly a lobbyist for SEIU 503. Kotek’s former Chief of Staff, Andrea Cooper, was the union’s political director. The union’s political action committee endorsed Kotek for Governor in 2022 and again this year.
Oregon Roundup Foundation created this article. ORF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation dedicated to covering Oregon political and government news. Media outlets are welcome to use this article for free with attribution of the author and Oregon Roundup Foundation.