COLA Ledger

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

The 2003 Social Security COLA — 1.4%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2003

1.4%

This adjustment was determined in 2002, took effect with benefits payable for December 2002, and first reached checks in January 2003.

Determined in
2002December-effective
First in a check
January 2003
Comparison quarter
Q3 2002CPI-W 176.6
Base quarter
Q3 2001CPI-W 174.1

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2002, 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 1.4%

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 2003 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2001July 2001173.800
August 2001173.800
September 2001174.800
Base quarter average174.1
Comparison — Q3 2002July 2002176.100
August 2002176.600
September 2002177.000
Comparison quarter average176.6

The quarterly averages are rounded to the nearest tenth — the precision the determination-2002 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 1.4%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 1.4%, 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 1.4% 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 2003 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,014+$14+$168
$2,000$2,028+$28+$336

The 2003 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 2003, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2003
Parameter2003
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$87,000
SSI federal payment rate — individual$552
SSI federal payment rate — couple$829
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$890
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$11,520
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$30,720
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$800
Substantial gainful activity — blind$1,330
Trial work period — a service month$570
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$606
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$3,653

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2002. 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