HUMANITYVECTOR
Menu

Derived metric methodology, version 1.0

Labor hours per CPI basket, indexed to 2007

Hours of average private-sector work needed to buy the consumer basket that one hour bought on average in 2007: CPI-U relative to its 2007 mean divided by average hourly earnings relative to their 2007 mean. 2007 = 1.000 by construction.

DerivedMetric page

Specification

How the value is computed

spec hash 199e76bfbbeb9f5f

Formula in plain words

The custom function labor_hours_cpi_basket over the whole component dataset, for each geography and period. A period with any component missing produces no value. Rounded to 4 decimals.

Components

LabelMetricGeographyLagTransformScaleConstraint
cpi_all_itemsUS consumer price index, all itemsus-cpi, index 1982-1984=100ObservedUSAnonelevel, as stored1none
hourly_earningsUS average hourly earnings, all private employeesus-average-hourly-earnings, US dollars per hourObservedUSAnonelevel, as stored1must be positive
Combination
Named function labor_hours_cpi_basket, evaluated once over the whole component dataset (it reads across geographies or records an assessment) and returning the observation ids it used.
Missing data
Skip the period: no value is produced unless every component is present. Nothing is interpolated or carried forward.
Window
None: each period stands on its own.
Normalization
None: the combined value is published in its own unit.
Unit and rounding
hours per 2007 hour-basket. Rounded to 4 decimals, applied last.
Default geography
USA

Parameters

{
  "base_year": 2007,
  "base_year_reason": "first full calendar year of CES0500000003, which begins March 2006; a year-2000 base is not computable from this earnings series",
  "base": "calendar-year mean of the stored months of the base year, for each component; the base months' ids are on every row"
}
Coverage

What has been computed

Current values
244
Geographies
1
Periods
244, 2006-03-01 to 2026-07-01
Last computed
2026-09-07 22:04 UTC
Produced by
version 1.0
Reproducibility

Last verification

Outcome
success
Run at
2026-09-07 22:15 UTC
Examined
5101 derived values across all metrics, 5090 reproduced, 0 issues
This metric
244 of 244 reproduced, 0 issues

Worked example

United States, 2026-07-01

Stored value

0.8913 hours per 2007 hour-basket

Observation id
404307
Formula version
1.0
Source revision
v1.0/a21f92ae87b9
Computed at
2026-09-07 22:04 UTC
Coverage
2 of 2 components (minimum 2)
cpi_relative_to_base
1.6051
earnings_relative_to_base
1.8008

Recorded with the value

{
  "base_year": 2007,
  "cpi_base_mean": 207.34416666666667,
  "cpi_base_months": 12,
  "earnings_base_mean": 20.907500000000002,
  "earnings_base_months": 12
}
Component observations used

26 observations

Observation idMetricGeographyPeriodValueSource revision
167372us-cpiUSA2026-07-01332.8132026-09-03
393724us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2026-07-0137.652026-09-07
167139us-cpiUSA2007-01-01203.4372026-09-03
167140us-cpiUSA2007-02-01204.2262026-09-03
167141us-cpiUSA2007-03-01205.2882026-09-03
167142us-cpiUSA2007-04-01205.9042026-09-03
167143us-cpiUSA2007-05-01206.7552026-09-03
167144us-cpiUSA2007-06-01207.2342026-09-03
167145us-cpiUSA2007-07-01207.6032026-09-03
167146us-cpiUSA2007-08-01207.6672026-09-03
167147us-cpiUSA2007-09-01208.5472026-09-03
167148us-cpiUSA2007-10-01209.192026-09-03
167149us-cpiUSA2007-11-01210.8342026-09-03
167150us-cpiUSA2007-12-01211.4452026-09-03
393490us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2007-01-0120.592026-09-07
393491us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2007-02-0120.682026-09-07
393492us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2007-03-0120.722026-09-07
393493us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2007-04-0120.792026-09-07
393494us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2007-05-0120.842026-09-07
393495us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2007-06-0120.952026-09-07
393496us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2007-07-0120.942026-09-07
393497us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2007-08-01212026-09-07
393498us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2007-09-0121.042026-09-07
393499us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2007-10-0121.062026-09-07
393500us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2007-11-0121.122026-09-07
393501us-average-hourly-earningsUSA2007-12-0121.162026-09-07

Recompute by hand: The custom function labor_hours_cpi_basket over the whole component dataset, for each geography and period. A period with any component missing produces no value. Rounded to 4 decimals. Applying that to the rows above gives 0.8913 hours per 2007 hour-basket.

History

Version history

metric_method_versions
Version 1.0, effective 2026-09-07 00:00 UTCcurrent

Formula The custom function labor_hours_cpi_basket over the whole component dataset, for each geography and period. A period with any component missing produces no value. Rounded to 4 decimals.

Labor hours per CPI basket, indexed to 2007, version 1.0

Classification. Derived: deterministic arithmetic over stored values; every number is reproducible from the stored ids named in the observation's metadata.

Formula. For each month, CPI-U all items divided by its 2007 calendar-year mean (the price of the basket relative to the base), divided by average hourly earnings divided by their 2007 calendar-year mean (the wage relative to the base). The result is hours per 2007 hour-basket, 1.000 on average over 2007 by construction. The base-year means are computed from the stored months of that year and those months' ids are recorded on every row (custom function labor_hours_cpi_basket; the engine's index transform takes a single base period, not a year mean).

Engine rendering: The custom function labor_hours_cpi_basket over the whole component dataset, for each geography and period. A period with any component missing produces no value. Rounded to 4 decimals.

Components.

  • cpi_all_items, metric us-cpi (USA). CPI-U all items, US city average, seasonally adjusted (FRED CPIAUCSL).
  • hourly_earnings, metric us-average-hourly-earnings (USA). Average hourly earnings of all employees, total private (BLS CES0500000003 via FRED).

Windows and alignment. Monthly, United States, matched on the month. Base period: calendar year 2007. No value is produced until both series have at least one stored month in 2007.

Missing data. A period is produced only when every component has a value for it; nothing is interpolated, carried forward or estimated.

Rationale. The two physical labor-hour measures cover energy; the CPI basket covers everything an urban household buys, at the cost of being an index. Stating it as hours per base-year basket is honest about that: it is the inverse of real average hourly earnings rebased to 2007, written in work time.

Limitations. The roadmap asked for a year-2000 base. CES0500000003 (all employees) starts in March 2006, so a 2000 base would need a different earnings series (CES0500000008, production and nonsupervisory employees, from 1964); that is a candidate for version 1.1 and would be a separate metric, not a silent substitution. Average hourly earnings are a mean across all private employees, not a median and not after tax, so the hours are those of an average earner, and a distribution shift changes them without any change in prices. Prices are national averages; households in different states face different electricity and gasoline prices. Both components are nominal, which is the point: no deflator is involved, the measure is a physical quantity against a wage.

Revision. Recomputed at every derived pass; a changed component value produces a new observation row and earlier rows are kept. A change to anything that affects the numbers is a new formula version (the spec hash is on every row and a changed spec under a used version is refused).

Labor hours per CPI basket, indexed to 2007, methodology version 1.0 | Humanity Vector