5 CFR § 591.210 - What are weights?

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t5/s591.210"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "5 CFR § 591.210 - What are weights?"
title_number: 5
title_name: "Administrative Personnel"
section_number: "591.210"
section_name: "What are weights?"
chapter_name: "OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT"
subchapter_number: "B"
subchapter_name: "CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS"
part_number: "591"
part_name: "ALLOWANCES AND DIFFERENTIALS"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-04-05"
last_updated: "2026-04-05"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
cfr_part: "591"
---


# 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).