[jstelly]

They are using this data for Cost of Living according to the Hired article this article is summarizing.

hired article: https://hired.com/state-of-salaries-2017

cost of living data comes from here: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

[sputknick]

That helps explain it, thank you. It looks like the root problem is they are using the (excl rent) number, and the recent increase in COL is Seattle has been driven by real estate, so the problem isn't there data, it's how they are applying it.