COLA Ledger

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

The 2000 Social Security COLA — 2.5%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2000

2.5%

This adjustment was determined in 1999, took effect with benefits payable for December 1999, and first reached checks in January 2000.

Determined in
1999December-effective
First in a check
January 2000
Comparison quarter
Q3 1999CPI-W 163.9
Base quarter
Q3 1998CPI-W 160.0

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 1999, 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.

A statutory override, not a computation

The computation from published CPI-W gives 2.4%. Public Law 106-554 set the adjustment at 2.5% instead. Determined as 2.4% from the published CPI-W. Public Law 106-554 made the December 1999 COLA effectively 2.5%. The engine computes 2.4%; the published value stands by statute.

The CPI-W values behind the 2.5%

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 2000 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 1998July 1998159.800
August 1998160.000
September 1998160.200
Base quarter average160.0
Comparison — Q3 1999July 1999163.300
August 1999163.800
September 1999164.700
Comparison quarter average163.9

The quarterly averages are rounded to the nearest tenth — the precision the determination-1999 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 2.5%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 2.4%, 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 2.5% 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 2000 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,025+$25+$300
$2,000$2,050+$50+$600

The 2000 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 2000, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2000
Parameter2000
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$76,200
SSI federal payment rate — individual$513
SSI federal payment rate — couple$769
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$780
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$10,080
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$17,000
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$700
Substantial gainful activity — blind$1,170
Trial work period — a service month$200
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$531
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$3,202

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 1999. 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