COLA Ledger

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

The 2022 Social Security COLA — 5.9%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2022

5.9%

This adjustment was determined in 2021, took effect with benefits payable for December 2021, and first reached checks in January 2022.

Determined in
2021December-effective
First in a check
January 2022
Comparison quarter
Q3 2021CPI-W 268.421
Base quarter
Q3 2020CPI-W 253.412

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2021, 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 5.9%

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 2022 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2020July 2020252.636
August 2020253.597
September 2020254.004
Base quarter average253.412
Comparison — Q3 2021July 2021267.789
August 2021268.387
September 2021269.086
Comparison quarter average268.421

The quarterly averages are rounded to three decimal places — the precision the determination-2021 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 5.9%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 5.9%, 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 5.9% 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 2022 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,059+$59+$708
$2,000$2,118+$118+$1,416

Medicare changes the answer. In 2022 the Part B standard premium was $170.10 against $148.50 the year before, so a $2,000 benefit gained +$118 gross but only +$96 net — an effective raise of 5.19% against a headline 5.9%. The full ledger for that amount.

The 2022 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 2022, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2022
Parameter2022
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$147,000
SSI federal payment rate — individual$841
SSI federal payment rate — couple$1,261
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$1,510
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$19,560
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$51,960
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$1,350
Substantial gainful activity — blind$2,260
Trial work period — a service month$970
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$1,024
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$6,172
Medicare Part B standard monthly premium$170.10
Medicare Part B annual deductible$233

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2021. 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