COLA Ledger

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

The 2026 Social Security COLA — 2.8%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2026

2.8%

This adjustment was determined in 2025, took effect with benefits payable for December 2025, and first reached checks in January 2026.

Determined in
2025December-effective
First in a check
January 2026
Comparison quarter
Q3 2025CPI-W 317.265
Base quarter
Q3 2024CPI-W 308.729

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2025, 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 2026 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2024July 2024308.501
August 2024308.640
September 2024309.046
Base quarter average308.729
Comparison — Q3 2025July 2025316.349
August 2025317.306
September 2025318.139
Comparison quarter average317.265

The quarterly averages are rounded to three decimal places — the precision the determination-2025 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 2026 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 2026 the Part B standard premium was $202.90 against $185.00 the year before, so a $2,000 benefit gained +$56 gross but only +$38 net — an effective raise of 2.09% against a headline 2.8%. The full ledger for that amount.

The 2026 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 2026, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2026
Parameter2026
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$184,500
SSI federal payment rate — individual$994
SSI federal payment rate — couple$1,491
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$1,890
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$24,480
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$65,160
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$1,690
Substantial gainful activity — blind$2,830
Trial work period — a service month$1,210
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$1,286
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$7,749
Medicare Part B standard monthly premium$202.90
Medicare Part B annual deductible$283

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2025. 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