Americans’ wage increases were smaller last year.

Wage and salary increases last year averaged 3.5%, down from 4.4% in 1985, as more employers heaped year-end bonuses on their workers in lieu of larger pay raises, the Labor Department reported. Continuing a trend begun in 1983, non-union workers won larger percentage increases, 3.6%, than union members, 2.1%, the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said.