COLA Ledger

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

The 2008 Social Security COLA — 2.3%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2008

2.3%

This adjustment was determined in 2007, took effect with benefits payable for December 2007, and first reached checks in January 2008.

Determined in
2007December-effective
First in a check
January 2008
Comparison quarter
Q3 2007CPI-W 203.596
Base quarter
Q3 2006CPI-W 199.067

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2007, 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 2.3%

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 2008 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2006July 2006199.200
August 2006199.600
September 2006198.400
Base quarter average199.067
Comparison — Q3 2007July 2007203.700
August 2007203.199
September 2007203.889
Comparison quarter average203.596

The quarterly averages are rounded to three decimal places — the precision the determination-2007 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 2.3%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 2.3%, 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 2.3% 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 2008 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,023+$23+$276
$2,000$2,046+$46+$552

Medicare changes the answer. In 2008 the Part B standard premium was $96.40 against $93.50 the year before, so a $2,000 benefit gained +$46 gross but only +$43 net — an effective raise of 2.26% against a headline 2.3%. The full ledger for that amount.

The 2008 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 2008, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2008
Parameter2008
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$102,000
SSI federal payment rate — individual$637
SSI federal payment rate — couple$956
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$1,050
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$13,560
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$36,120
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$940
Substantial gainful activity — blind$1,570
Trial work period — a service month$670
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$711
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$4,288
Medicare Part B standard monthly premium$96.40
Medicare Part B annual deductible$135

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2007. 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