Producer Price Index for construction materials, a BLS special index aggregating the material inputs used across residential and nonresidential construction into one series rather than tracking any single material. Index base: 1982 = 100.
Latest value
375.908
Index · as of Aug 2026
Year-over-year change
+10.2%
BLS
Month-over-month change
+0.3%
Latest value is 1 month old. Next update expected around Sep 2026.
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Enter a base value, a current value, and a contract amount to see the adjustment.
Price history
Data & insights
Key figures
From Jan 2024 to Aug 2026 the index went from 334.4 to 375.9, a change of +12.4%.
Highest reading in that period: 375.9 in Aug 2026. Lowest: 324.1 in Sep 2024.
Largest one-month rise: +2.0% in May 2025. Largest one-month fall: -2.0% in Mar 2024.
For a clause that resets its base every year, a 10% cap or floor would have limited the adjustment in 2 of the last 20 months.
Volatility (12mo)
±0.74%
Std. dev. of month-over-month change
Strongest average month-over-month move historically: February (+1.1% avg).
What this means for your clause
General contractor bid escalation clauses cite this aggregate when a project buys many material types and does not want to negotiate a separate index per material. Because it blends lumber, concrete, steel, and other inputs that do not move together, a contract concentrated in one material category gets closer accuracy from that material own series.
Draft a clause
A starting point citing this series by name and code. Replace the bracketed terms with your contract's actual scope before use.
The [affected portion] of the Contract Price shall be adjusted using US PPI — Construction Materials (BLS series WPUSI012011), published by BLS.
Base Period: the index value published for August 2026 (or the month of contract signing, if different) is the Base Value.
Adjustment: at each Adjustment Date, the Current Value is the most recently published three-month average of the index (the Averaging Window). The Escalation Factor equals Current Value divided by Base Value.
Cap: the Escalation Factor applied under this clause shall not exceed 1.10 or fall below 0.90 (a 10% cap and floor) in any single Adjustment Date, regardless of the index's actual movement.
[Replace bracketed terms with your contract's actual affected-portion definition and adjustment-date schedule before use. This is a drafting starting point, not legal advice.]
Price escalation in a construction contract is a clause that adjusts the contract price for movements in the published price of a named material, fuel, or labor cost after the bid. It shifts material-price risk from the contractor to the owner, within a defined base period, formula, and cap.
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