Glossary
Employment Cost Index
A quarterly BLS index of labor cost. It is not CPI, and CPI percents cannot be substituted for it.
The Employment Cost Index, published by BLS, measures the change in the cost of labor. It is quarterly. Its base period is not the CPI's 1982–84=100. Facilities agreements sometimes name ECI instead of CPI, often with a floor and a cap, because the cost they are indexing is payroll rather than a consumer basket.
An ECI clause is computed from the ECI release the clause names: which compensation series, whether wages and salaries or total compensation, private industry or a sector, and which quarters. Pasting a CPI percent into an ECI clause is a wrong bill in both directions.
This site's calculator is a CPI calculator. It does not carry the ECI tables, and it will not pretend a CPI result is an ECI result. If the contract says ECI, the worksheet should cite the ECI release and stop using CPI tools.
ECI and a wage pass-through can both show up in a large agreement. One tracks an index of employment cost. The other tracks a specific statute. Read which dollars each one touches.
Related terms
See it used in a worked example · CPI calculator · Request an audit
Sources and limits
Index levels from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, not seasonally adjusted, retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on November 1, 2026. Values are index points, not the headline 12-month percent.
Statewide rates reflect U.S. Department of Labor state minimum-wage postings as updated January 1, 2026, the U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Note on 2026 increases, and, for the prior-year comparison and named local rates, the National Employment Law Project compilation published in November 2025. Confirm the rate that applies to the workplace before using it in a bill.
The contracts in these worksheets are fictional. The prices are chosen so the arithmetic is easy to check. They are not a price survey and they are not client results.
RateClause is not a law firm. Nothing on this page is legal advice. Your clause controls, including whether a past period can be rebilled at all.
Primary postings: BLS Consumer Price Index, U.S. Department of Labor, state minimum wages, U.S. Department of State notice of 2026 minimum-wage increases.