CONSUMER PRICE INDEX FOR URBAN WAGE EARNERS AND CLERICAL WORKERS: An index of prices of goods and services typically purchased by urban wage earners and clerical workers. This carries the official abbreviation CPI-W to distinguish it from it's more famous sister index CPI-U, which is the standard Consumer Price Index for All Urban Workers, (commonly abbreviated simply as CPI). Like the standard CPI, the CPI-W is compiled and published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), using price data obtained from an elaborate survey of 25,000 retail outlets and quantity data generated by the Consumer Expenditures Survey. The CPI-W is a continuation of the original CPI developed early in the 1900s to provide cost-of-living adjustment information to wage-earning workers. See also | Consumer Price Index | price level | index | consumer | Bureau of Labor Statistics | inflation | nominal | real | wage | income | Social Security | GDP price deflator | Producer Price Index | Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers | civilian labor force |
