COLA Ledger

An independent reference — not affiliated with the Social Security Administration. Every figure traced to the government publication that produced it.

The 1991 Social Security COLA — 5.4%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 1991

5.4%

This adjustment was determined in 1990, took effect with benefits payable for December 1990, and first reached checks in January 1991.

Determined in
1990December-effective
First in a check
January 1991
Comparison quarter
Q3 1990CPI-W 129.9
Base quarter
Q3 1989CPI-W 123.3

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 1990, the year it was determined. The public name it by the year it reaches a check, which is one later. This site uses the name people search for. Why the two labels disagree.

The CPI-W values behind the 5.4%

Every adjustment is an average of three monthly index readings against an average of three others. These are the six values, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics published them for series CWUR0000SA0 — all items, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted.

CPI-W monthly index values and quarterly averages behind the 1991 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 1989July 1989123.200
August 1989123.200
September 1989123.600
Base quarter average123.3
Comparison — Q3 1990July 1990128.700
August 1990129.900
September 1990131.100
Comparison quarter average129.9

The quarterly averages are rounded to the nearest tenth — the precision the determination-1990 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 5.4%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 5.4%, matching SSA’s published figure. That check runs on all 51 determinations as a blocking build gate, so no page here can ship a figure the arithmetic does not support.

What 5.4% did to a benefit

Monthly benefit amounts are floored to the whole dollar after the adjustment is applied, which is why these figures are not simply the percentage multiplied out.

Effect of the 1991 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,054+$54+$648
$2,000$2,108+$108+$1,296

The 1991 figures this adjustment set

Most Social Security parameters move with the adjustment or with the national average wage index. These are the committed values for 1991, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 1991
Parameter1991
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$53,400
SSI federal payment rate — individual$407
SSI federal payment rate — couple$610
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$540
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$7,080
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$9,720
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$500
Substantial gainful activity — blind$810
Trial work period — a service month$200
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$370
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$2,230

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 1990. Page figures last verified against the sources above on 10 August 2026. BLS data retrieved 10 August 2026. BLS.gov cannot vouch for data or analyses derived from these data after retrieval. Corrections: the correction log · support@inventum.com.au