---
kind: "section"
citation: "5 C.F.R. § 591.210"
title: "5"
number: "591.210"
heading: "What are weights?"
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/5/591.210"
---

# §591.210. What are weights?

- (a) A weight is the relative importance or share of a subpart of a group compared with the total for the group. A weight is frequently expressed as a percentage. For example, in a pie chart, each wedge has a percentage that represents its relative importance or the size of the wedge compared with the whole pie.
- (b) **OPM uses two kinds of weights—** Consumer expenditure weights and employment weights.
  - (1) **Consumer expenditure weights.** The consumer expenditure weight for a category of expenditures (e.g., Food) is the relative importance or share (often expressed as a percentage) of that category in terms of total consumer expenditures. OPM derives consumer expenditure weights from the tabulated results of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES).
  - (2) **Employment weights.** The employment weight is the relative employment population of the survey area compared with the employment population of the COLA area as a whole. OPM uses the number of General Schedule employees in the survey area to compute employment weights. OPM uses these employment weights as described in [§ 591.216(b)](/cfr/5/591.216.md?p=b).

## Notes

### Authority

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 5941; E.O. 10000, 3 CFR, 1943-1948 Comp., p. 792; and E.O. 12510, 3 CFR, 1985 Comp., p. 338.

### Source

Source: 67 FR 22340, May 3, 2002, unless otherwise noted.