COLA Ledger

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

The 2009 Social Security COLA — 5.8%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2009

5.8%

This adjustment was determined in 2008, took effect with benefits payable for December 2008, and first reached checks in January 2009.

Determined in
2008December-effective
First in a check
January 2009
Comparison quarter
Q3 2008CPI-W 215.495
Base quarter
Q3 2007CPI-W 203.596

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2008, 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 5.8%

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 2009 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2007July 2007203.700
August 2007203.199
September 2007203.889
Base quarter average203.596
Comparison — Q3 2008July 2008216.304
August 2008215.247
September 2008214.935
Comparison quarter average215.495

The quarterly averages are rounded to three decimal places — the precision the determination-2008 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 5.8%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 5.8%, 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 5.8% 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 2009 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,058+$58+$696
$2,000$2,116+$116+$1,392

Medicare changes the answer. In 2009 the Part B standard premium was $96.40 against $96.40 the year before, so a $2,000 benefit gained +$116 gross but only +$116 net — an effective raise of 6.10% against a headline 5.8%. The full ledger for that amount.

The 2009 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 2009, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2009
Parameter2009
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$106,800
SSI federal payment rate — individual$674
SSI federal payment rate — couple$1,011
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$1,090
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$14,160
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$37,680
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$980
Substantial gainful activity — blind$1,640
Trial work period — a service month$700
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$744
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$4,483
Medicare Part B standard monthly premium$96.40
Medicare Part B annual deductible$135

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2008. 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