Compensation costs for private industry workers in the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area increased by 3.7 percent over the year ending September 2025, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that this increase is lower than the previous year’s annual gain of 5.3 percent. Nationally, compensation costs rose by 3.5 percent during the same period.
Wages and salaries in San Jose, which make up the largest part of compensation costs, grew by 3.9 percent for the year ending September 2025. Across the United States, wages and salaries increased by 3.6 percent during this time.
San Jose is one of fifteen metropolitan areas nationwide—and one of four in the West—for which locality compensation cost data are available. Among these large metro areas, changes in compensation costs ranged from a high of 5.7 percent in Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale to a low of 2.1 percent in Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor as of September 2025; wage and salary increases ranged from Miami’s 5.9 percent to Washington-Baltimore-Arlington’s 1.9 percent.
Within western metropolitan areas, San Jose’s annual increase in compensation costs was compared with Los Angeles-Long Beach (4.7 percent), Phoenix-Mesa (3.8 percent), and Seattle-Tacoma (3.1 percent). The area’s wage and salary growth rate was also measured against other western localities, ranging from Los Angeles-Long Beach’s 4.3 percent to Seattle-Tacoma’s 2.6 percent.
Locality compensation cost data are derived from the national Employment Cost Index (ECI), which tracks quarterly changes in wages, salaries, and employer benefit costs without being affected by shifts among occupations or industries.
The ECI provides additional national data broken down by industry, occupation group, union status, and government level on its website, along with summaries and regional information through its Western Information Office homepage.
The substate area definitions used follow guidance set out by federal classification systems updated most recently in February 2013.
“Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 3.7 percent in the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area (CSA) for the year ended September 2025,” said Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund.
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