Compensation costs for private industry workers in the Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL Combined Statistical Area (CSA) increased by 5.7 percent over the year ending September 2025, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This rise marks a significant jump compared to the previous year’s increase of 2.2 percent.
Victoria G. Lee, Regional Commissioner, stated: “Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 5.7 percent in the Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL Combined Statistical Area (CSA) for the year ending in September 2025, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.” She also noted that “one year ago, Miami experienced an annual gain of 2.2 percent in compensation costs.”
Nationally, compensation costs rose by 3.5 percent during this period.
Wages and salaries—the largest component of compensation—grew at a rate of 5.9 percent locally for the same twelve-month period, outpacing the national average increase of 3.6 percent.
Miami is one of fifteen metropolitan areas nationwide and one of five in the South region where locality compensation cost data are available from BLS surveys. Among these large metropolitan areas, changes in compensation costs ranged from Miami’s high of 5.7 percent to Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor’s low of 2.1 percent as of September 2025; wage and salary increases were highest in Miami (5.9 percent) and lowest in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington (1.9 percent).
Within southern metropolitan areas tracked by BLS—Atlanta–Athens-Clarke County–Sandy Springs; Dallas-Fort Worth; Houston-Pasadena; and Washington—compensation cost increases ranged between 4.5 and 2.2 percent over the same period, with Miami registering both the highest overall increase (5.7 percent) and highest wage growth (5.9 percent). In comparison, other southern localities saw wage gains ranging from 5 to 1.9 percent.
The Employment Cost Index (ECI), which provides these figures on quarterly changes in wages, salaries, and employer benefit costs while adjusting for employment shifts among occupations or industries, offers additional data online regarding national trends by industry groupings and union status as well as information covering civilian government employees.
The substate area definitions used reflect guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget Bulletin No. 23-01 dated July 21, 2023.
The CSA covered includes Broward, Indian River, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie Counties.
For more detailed methodology or further breakdowns by region or occupation groupings within ECI data sets or related resources—including historical timelines on wage growth—interested parties can consult official BLS sources or contact their Southeast Information Office regional homepage.
