COLA Ledger

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

The 2025 Social Security COLA — 2.5%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2025

2.5%

This adjustment was determined in 2024, took effect with benefits payable for December 2024, and first reached checks in January 2025.

Determined in
2024December-effective
First in a check
January 2025
Comparison quarter
Q3 2024CPI-W 308.729
Base quarter
Q3 2023CPI-W 301.236

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2024, 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 2.5%

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 2025 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2023July 2023299.899
August 2023301.551
September 2023302.257
Base quarter average301.236
Comparison — Q3 2024July 2024308.501
August 2024308.640
September 2024309.046
Comparison quarter average308.729

The quarterly averages are rounded to three decimal places — the precision the determination-2024 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 2.5%, 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 2025 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

Medicare changes the answer. In 2025 the Part B standard premium was $185.00 against $174.70 the year before, so a $2,000 benefit gained +$50 gross but only +$40 net — an effective raise of 2.19% against a headline 2.5%. The full ledger for that amount.

The 2025 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 2025, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2025
Parameter2025
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$176,100
SSI federal payment rate — individual$967
SSI federal payment rate — couple$1,450
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$1,810
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$23,400
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$62,160
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$1,620
Substantial gainful activity — blind$2,700
Trial work period — a service month$1,160
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$1,226
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$7,391
Medicare Part B standard monthly premium$185.00
Medicare Part B annual deductible$257

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2024. 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