Compensation costs for private industry workers in the Seattle-Tacoma, WA Combined Statistical Area (CSA) rose by 4.7 percent for the year ending September 2025, according to a report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that this increase follows an annual gain of 4.4 percent reported one year earlier. Nationally, compensation costs increased by 3.5 percent over the same period.
Wages and salaries in Seattle, which represent the largest share of compensation costs, grew at a rate of 4.3 percent during the 12 months ending September 2025. This compares to a national rise in wages and salaries of 3.6 percent.
Seattle is one of fifteen metropolitan areas across the United States where locality compensation cost data are available, and it is among four such areas in the West region. Among these major metro areas, Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale experienced the highest annual increase in compensation costs at 5.7 percent, while Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor saw the lowest at 2.1 percent as of September 2025. For wage and salary increases specifically, Miami had the largest jump at 5.9 percent; Washington-Baltimore-Arlington recorded the smallest at 1.9 percent.
In comparison to other western metropolitan areas—Los Angeles-Long Beach, Phoenix-Mesa, and San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland—Seattle’s annual increase in compensation costs was higher; those three regions reported advances ranging from 3.7 percent to 3.1 percent over the same period. The growth in wages and salaries for Seattle also outpaced those localities’ rates, which ranged from 3.9 percent to 2.6 percent.
The Bureau’s Employment Cost Index (ECI) tracks quarterly changes in compensation costs—including both wages/salaries and employer-paid benefits—and removes distortions caused by shifts among different occupations or industries within employment figures.
Additional information on national ECI data broken down by industry groupings or union status can be found on their Employment Cost Index website. More details specific to regions and states are available through their Western Information Office regional homepage.
Seattle-Tacoma’s CSA includes Island, King, Kitsap, Lewis, Mason, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish, and Thurston Counties in Washington State.
“Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request,” stated officials from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Western Information Office.
