COLA Ledger

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

The 2019 Social Security COLA — 2.8%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2019

2.8%

This adjustment was determined in 2018, took effect with benefits payable for December 2018, and first reached checks in January 2019.

Determined in
2018December-effective
First in a check
January 2019
Comparison quarter
Q3 2018CPI-W 246.352
Base quarter
Q3 2017CPI-W 239.668

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2018, 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 2.8%

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 2019 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2017July 2017238.617
August 2017239.448
September 2017240.939
Base quarter average239.668
Comparison — Q3 2018July 2018246.155
August 2018246.336
September 2018246.565
Comparison quarter average246.352

The quarterly averages are rounded to three decimal places — the precision the determination-2018 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 2.8%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 2.8%, 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 2.8% 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 2019 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,028+$28+$336
$2,000$2,056+$56+$672

Medicare changes the answer. In 2019 the Part B standard premium was $135.50 against $134.00 the year before, so a $2,000 benefit gained +$56 gross but only +$54 net — an effective raise of 2.89% against a headline 2.8%. The full ledger for that amount.

The 2019 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 2019, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2019
Parameter2019
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$132,900
SSI federal payment rate — individual$771
SSI federal payment rate — couple$1,157
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$1,360
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$17,640
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$46,920
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$1,220
Substantial gainful activity — blind$2,040
Trial work period — a service month$880
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$926
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$5,583
Medicare Part B standard monthly premium$135.50
Medicare Part B annual deductible$185

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2018. 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