COLA Ledger

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

The 1981 Social Security COLA — 11.2%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 1981

11.2%

This adjustment took effect with benefits payable for June 1981, so it reached checks from July 1981.

Determined in
1981June-effective
First in a check
July 1981
Comparison quarter
Q1 1981CPI-W 88.3
Base quarter
Q1 1980CPI-W 79.4

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 1981, the year it was determined. This site uses the name people search for. Why the two labels disagree.

The CPI-W values behind the 11.2%

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 1981 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q1 1980January 198078.300
February 198079.400
March 198080.500
Base quarter average79.4
Comparison — Q1 1981January 198187.500
February 198188.500
March 198189.000
Comparison quarter average88.3

The quarterly averages are rounded to the nearest tenth — the precision the determination-1981 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 11.2%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 11.2%, 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 11.2% 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 1981 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,112+$112+$1,344
$2,000$2,224+$224+$2,688

The 1981 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 1981, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 1981
Parameter1981
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$29,700
SSI federal payment rate — individual$264.70
SSI federal payment rate — couple$397
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$310
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$4,080
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$5,500
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$300
Substantial gainful activity — blind$459
Trial work period — a service month$75
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$211
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$1,274

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective June 1981. 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