Derived metric methodology, version 1.0
Labor hours per 100 gallons of gasoline
Hours of average private-sector work needed to buy 100 gallons of regular gasoline in the United States: the weekly EIA pump price averaged over the weeks of the month, times 100, divided by BLS average hourly earnings.
Specification
How the value is computed
Formula in plain words
The custom function labor_hours_gasoline_monthly over the whole component dataset, for each geography and period. A period with any component missing produces no value. Rounded to 3 decimals.
Components
| Label | Metric | Geography | Lag | Transform | Scale | Constraint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gasoline_price_weekly | US regular gasoline retail priceus-gasoline-regular-price, US dollars per gallonObserved | USA | none | level, as stored | 1 | none |
| hourly_earnings | US average hourly earnings, all private employeesus-average-hourly-earnings, US dollars per hourObserved | USA | none | level, as stored | 1 | must be positive |
- Combination
- Named function labor_hours_gasoline_monthly, 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. Rounded to 3 decimals, applied last.
- Default geography
- USA
Parameters
{
"gallons": 100,
"monthly_mean": "weekly observations whose date falls in the calendar month are averaged; the ids of the averaged weeks are on the row"
}What has been computed
- Current values
- 246
- Geographies
- 1
- Periods
- 246, 2006-03-01 to 2026-08-01
- Last computed
- 2026-09-07 22:04 UTC
- Produced by
- version 1.0
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
- 246 of 246 reproduced, 0 issues
Worked example
United States, 2026-08-01
10.75 hours
- Observation id
- 404553
- Formula version
- 1.0
- Source revision
- v1.0/a581d1fc88d5
- Computed at
- 2026-09-07 22:04 UTC
- Coverage
- 2 of 2 components (minimum 2)
- hourly_earnings
- 37.75
- gasoline_price_monthly_mean
- 4.058
Recorded with the value
{
"gallons": 100,
"weeks_averaged": 5
}6 observations
| Observation id | Metric | Geography | Period | Value | Source revision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 395596 | us-gasoline-regular-price | USA | 2026-08-03 | 4.079 | 2026-09-07 |
| 395597 | us-gasoline-regular-price | USA | 2026-08-10 | 4.006 | 2026-09-07 |
| 395598 | us-gasoline-regular-price | USA | 2026-08-17 | 4.049 | 2026-09-07 |
| 395599 | us-gasoline-regular-price | USA | 2026-08-24 | 4.085 | 2026-09-07 |
| 395600 | us-gasoline-regular-price | USA | 2026-08-31 | 4.071 | 2026-09-07 |
| 393725 | us-average-hourly-earnings | USA | 2026-08-01 | 37.75 | 2026-09-07 |
Recompute by hand: The custom function labor_hours_gasoline_monthly over the whole component dataset, for each geography and period. A period with any component missing produces no value. Rounded to 3 decimals. Applying that to the rows above gives 10.75 hours.
History
Version history
Version 1.0, effective 2026-09-07 00:00 UTCcurrent
Formula The custom function labor_hours_gasoline_monthly over the whole component dataset, for each geography and period. A period with any component missing produces no value. Rounded to 3 decimals.
Labor hours per 100 gallons of gasoline, 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, the mean of the weekly regular gasoline prices whose date falls in that month, times 100, divided by average hourly earnings for the month. The result is hours. The custom function labor_hours_gasoline_monthly does the weekly-to-monthly mean; the engine has no such transform.
Engine rendering: The custom function labor_hours_gasoline_monthly over the whole component dataset, for each geography and period. A period with any component missing produces no value. Rounded to 3 decimals.
Components.
gasoline_price_weekly, metricus-gasoline-regular-price(USA). US regular all-formulations retail gasoline price, weekly (EIA via FRED GASREGW).hourly_earnings, metricus-average-hourly-earnings(USA). Average hourly earnings of all employees, total private (BLS CES0500000003 via FRED).
Windows and alignment. Monthly, United States. The electricity price and earnings are monthly series matched on the month. The gasoline price is weekly (reported for Mondays); the weeks whose date falls in a calendar month are averaged into that month before dividing, and the ids of the averaged weeks are recorded on the row.
Missing data. A period is produced only when every component has a value for it; nothing is interpolated, carried forward or estimated.
Rationale. Fuel is the other household energy purchase with a stable physical unit and a long price record; together with electricity it covers most of what a household spends on energy, in work time rather than dollars.
Limitations. 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. Gasoline is regular grade, all formulations; premium and diesel are not covered.
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).