COLA Ledger

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

The 2015 Social Security COLA — 1.7%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2015

1.7%

This adjustment was determined in 2014, took effect with benefits payable for December 2014, and first reached checks in January 2015.

Determined in
2014December-effective
First in a check
January 2015
Comparison quarter
Q3 2014CPI-W 234.242
Base quarter
Q3 2013CPI-W 230.327

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2014, 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 1.7%

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 2015 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2013July 2013230.084
August 2013230.359
September 2013230.537
Base quarter average230.327
Comparison — Q3 2014July 2014234.525
August 2014234.030
September 2014234.170
Comparison quarter average234.242

The quarterly averages are rounded to three decimal places — the precision the determination-2014 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 1.7%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 1.7%, 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 1.7% 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 2015 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,017+$17+$204
$2,000$2,034+$34+$408

Medicare changes the answer. In 2015 the Part B standard premium was $104.90 against $104.90 the year before, so a $2,000 benefit gained +$34 gross but only +$34 net — an effective raise of 1.79% against a headline 1.7%. The full ledger for that amount.

The 2015 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 2015, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2015
Parameter2015
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$118,500
SSI federal payment rate — individual$733
SSI federal payment rate — couple$1,100
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$1,220
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$15,720
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$41,880
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$1,090
Substantial gainful activity — blind$1,820
Trial work period — a service month$780
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$826
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$4,980
Medicare Part B standard monthly premium$104.90
Medicare Part B annual deductible$147

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2014. 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