COLA Ledger

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

The 2004 Social Security COLA — 2.1%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2004

2.1%

This adjustment was determined in 2003, took effect with benefits payable for December 2003, and first reached checks in January 2004.

Determined in
2003December-effective
First in a check
January 2004
Comparison quarter
Q3 2003CPI-W 180.3
Base quarter
Q3 2002CPI-W 176.6

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2003, 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 2.1%

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 2004 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2002July 2002176.100
August 2002176.600
September 2002177.000
Base quarter average176.6
Comparison — Q3 2003July 2003179.600
August 2003180.300
September 2003181.000
Comparison quarter average180.3

The quarterly averages are rounded to the nearest tenth — the precision the determination-2003 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 2.1%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 2.1%, 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 2.1% 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 2004 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,021+$21+$252
$2,000$2,042+$42+$504

The 2004 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 2004, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2004
Parameter2004
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$87,900
SSI federal payment rate — individual$564
SSI federal payment rate — couple$846
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$900
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$11,640
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$31,080
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$810
Substantial gainful activity — blind$1,350
Trial work period — a service month$580
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$612
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$3,689

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2003. 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