Compensation costs for private industry workers in the Atlanta–Athens-Clarke County–Sandy Springs, GA-AL Combined Statistical Area rose by 2.9 percent over the year ending September 2025, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that this is a decrease from the previous year’s increase of 4.8 percent. Nationally, compensation costs grew by 3.5 percent during the same period.
Wages and salaries in Atlanta, which make up the largest part of compensation costs, increased by 2.8 percent for the year ending September 2025. This is slightly below the national rate of wage and salary growth, which was 3.6 percent.
Atlanta is one of fifteen metropolitan areas across the United States and one of five in the South region where local compensation cost data are collected by BLS. Among these major areas, Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale saw the highest annual change in compensation costs at 5.7 percent, while Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor had the lowest at 2.1 percent for September 2025. For wages and salaries specifically, Miami reported a 5.9 percent increase, compared to Washington-Baltimore-Arlington’s smallest gain at 1.9 percent.
Within southern metropolitan areas—Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston-Pasadena, Miami, and Washington—the annual rise in Atlanta’s compensation costs (2.9 percent) was within a range that extended from Miami’s high of 5.7 percent to a low of 2.2 percent elsewhere in the region.
The BLS explains that locality compensation cost figures are part of its national Employment Cost Index (ECI), which tracks quarterly changes in employer expenses for wages, salaries, and benefits while removing distortions caused by employment shifts among industries or occupations.
Further information on methodology can be found through resources such as the Employment Cost Index Technical Note and National Compensation Measures Handbook of Methods on the BLS website. Additional breakdowns—including industry-specific data and regional statistics—are available online via dedicated BLS web pages.
The area covered by these statistics includes multiple counties in Georgia and Chambers County in Alabama.
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