Compensation costs for private industry workers in the Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale, FL Combined Statistical Area increased by 5.7 percent for the year ending September 2025, according to a report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This marks a notable rise compared to the previous year’s annual gain 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 added that “one year ago, Miami experienced an annual gain of 2.2 percent in compensation costs.”
Nationally, compensation costs rose by 3.5 percent over the same period.
Within Miami’s CSA, wages and salaries—which are the largest component of compensation—grew at a rate of 5.9 percent during this period. Nationally, wages and salaries saw an increase of 3.6 percent.
Miami is one of fifteen metropolitan areas across the United States and one of five areas in the South region where locality compensation cost data are available from BLS surveys. Among these fifteen areas, changes in compensation costs ranged from a high of 5.7 percent in Miami to a low of 2.1 percent in Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor as of September 2025; regarding wages and salaries specifically, Miami also had the highest increase at 5.9 percent while Washington-Baltimore-Arlington recorded the smallest at 1.9 percent.
The report further notes that other southern metropolitan areas—Atlanta–Athens-Clarke County–Sandy Springs, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston-Pasadena, and Washington—experienced annual advances in compensation ranging from 4.5 percent to 2.2 percent over this time frame; their wage and salary increases ranged from 5.0 percent to as low as 1.9 percent.
Locality compensation cost figures are part of the national Employment Cost Index (ECI), which tracks quarterly changes in both wages/salaries and employer-paid benefits while controlling for employment shifts among occupations or industries.
More information on methodology is available through technical documents such as the national Employment Cost Index Technical Note and National Compensation Measures Handbook of Methods on the Employment Cost Index website. Further details—including breakdowns by industry group or union status—are accessible online via the ECI website and the Southeast Information Office regional homepage.
The boundaries used for reporting reflect guidance from Office of Management and Budget Bulletin No. 23-01 issued July 21, 2023; more about historical timelines is available on the Tracking Wage Growth in American Cities page.
The Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale CSA covers Broward, Indian River, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie counties.
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