Compensation costs for private industry workers in the Seattle-Tacoma, WA Combined Statistical Area (CSA) rose by 4.7 percent over the year ending September 2025, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund stated that this increase follows an annual gain of 4.4 percent recorded in the previous year.
Nationwide, compensation costs grew by 3.5 percent during the same period. In Seattle, wages and salaries—the largest component of compensation—advanced at a rate of 4.3 percent for the year ending September 2025, compared to a national rise of 3.6 percent.
Seattle is one of fifteen metropolitan areas in the United States and one of four in the West region where locality compensation cost data are available. Among these areas, Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale experienced the highest over-the-year percentage change in compensation costs at 5.7 percent, while Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor saw the lowest at 2.1 percent for September 2025. For wages and salaries specifically, Miami registered the largest increase at 5.9 percent, with Washington-Baltimore-Arlington reporting the smallest gain at 1.9 percent.
Within western metropolitan areas, Seattle’s annual increase in compensation costs outpaced those seen in Los Angeles-Long Beach (3.7 percent), Phoenix-Mesa (3.2 percent), and San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland (3.1 percent). The city’s wage and salary growth rate of 4.3 percent was also higher than rates ranging from 3.9 to 2.6 percent observed in these other western localities.
Locality compensation cost data form part of the national Employment Cost Index (ECI), which tracks quarterly changes in compensation costs independent of employment shifts among occupations and industries.
Additional ECI data—including breakdowns by industry, occupational group, union status, as well as figures for civilian, private sector, and government employees—are available on the Employment Cost Index website. More regional information can be accessed through the Western Information Office regional homepage.
The substate area data referenced align with definitions set out by federal guidance from February 2013 and include Island, King, Kitsap, Lewis, Mason, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish, and Thurston Counties in Washington.
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