This page provides an overview of the Consumer Price Index for local governments in Washington State, including CPI geographic regions and links current and historical CPI data.

Overview

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the change in prices paid over time for a fixed market basket of goods and services, as calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It is one of the most widely used measures of inflation by both government and private sector organizations, and it is divided into two population groups:

• The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) measures the percentage change in prices faced by urban consumers and covers approximately 93% of the nation's population.
• The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) is a subset of the CPI-U and is sometimes referred to as the "blue-collar measure." Its market basket reflects the expenditures of urban households that derive more than half their income from clerical and hourly wage jobs. It covers approximately 29% of the nation's population.

Many governmental entities use the CPI for various purposes, such as cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for employees who are part of collective bargaining agreements, pension adjustments, or automatic increases for certain fees or revenue sources such as impact fees or multi-year levy lid lifts. After 2020, future increases to the statewide minimum wage that employers must pay will be tied to the CPI-W (RCW 49.46.020).

CPI Geographic Regions

BLS releases CPI-U and CPI-W data for a number of different geographic areas across the country, including the following regions of interest to local governments in Washington:

• U.S. City Average – Nationwide index; released monthly.
• West Census Region​ – Washington, Alaska, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon; released monthly. Includes two population classes.
• Pacific Census Division – Washington, Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Oregon; introduced at beginning of 2018 and released monthly.
• Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area – King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties; released every two months. Formerly the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton index.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue is currently the only metropolitan area of the Pacific Northwest that is represented. The Portland-Salem index (which included Clark County) was eliminated at the end of 2017 as part of the 2018 BLS geographic changes.

Current CPI Data and Release Schedule

The U.S. City Average, West, and Pacific indexes are updated on a monthly basis, while the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue region is released every two months (in odd-numbered months for the preceding even-numbered month). The BLS release schedule shows the upcoming release dates each month and also includes an online calendar that you can subscribe to.

For CPI data, see the following BLS resources:

• Current Western CPI Summaries – Monthly CPI overviews showing change and comparison between regions
• Consumer Price Index Pacific Cities and U.S. City Average Data Tables – Includes the CPI-U and CPI-W index numbers for each geography, as well as the 12-month percent changes, dating back about 10 years. You can download any of the data sets to Excel.
• CPI Historical Table for Portland-Salem – Discontinued at end of 2017, but provided as a reference for those jurisdictions that were using the Portland-Salem index

Recommended Resources

Below are some useful resources from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

• How to Use the Consumer Price Index for Escalation – General guidelines to consider when developing an escalation agreement using the CPI
• Consumer Price Index FAQs
• Addressing Misconceptions About the Consumer Price Index (2008)