COLA Ledger

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

The 2023 Social Security COLA — 8.7%

Cost-of-living adjustment, 2023

8.7%

This adjustment was determined in 2022, took effect with benefits payable for December 2022, and first reached checks in January 2023.

Determined in
2022December-effective
First in a check
January 2023
Comparison quarter
Q3 2022CPI-W 291.901
Base quarter
Q3 2021CPI-W 268.421

SSA’s own table lists this adjustment under 2022, 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 8.7%

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 2023 adjustment
QuarterMonthCPI-W index
Base — Q3 2021July 2021267.789
August 2021268.387
September 2021269.086
Base quarter average268.421
Comparison — Q3 2022July 2022292.219
August 2022291.629
September 2022291.854
Comparison quarter average291.901

The quarterly averages are rounded to three decimal places — the precision the determination-2022 notice specifies — and the percentage increase between them is then rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. That gives 8.7%.

Reproduced from the raw index

Recomputing this adjustment from the committed CPI-W series returns 8.7%, 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 8.7% 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 2023 adjustment on two benchmark monthly benefits
Monthly benefit beforeAfter the adjustmentMonthly increaseOver a year
$1,000$1,087+$87+$1,044
$2,000$2,174+$174+$2,088

Medicare changes the answer. In 2023 the Part B standard premium was $164.90 against $170.10 the year before, so a $2,000 benefit gained +$174 gross but only +$180 net — an effective raise of 9.84% against a headline 8.7%. The full ledger for that amount.

The 2023 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 2023, each traced to the government table it came from.

Committed Social Security and Medicare parameters for 2023
Parameter2023
Maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax$160,200
SSI federal payment rate — individual$914
SSI federal payment rate — couple$1,371
Earnings needed for one Social Security credit$1,640
Retirement earnings test — under full retirement age$21,240
Retirement earnings test — year of full retirement age$56,520
Substantial gainful activity — non-blind$1,470
Substantial gainful activity — blind$2,460
Trial work period — a service month$1,050
First PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$1,115
Second PIA bend point (eligibility at 62 this year)$6,721
Medicare Part B standard monthly premium$164.90
Medicare Part B annual deductible$226

Where to go next

Sources and freshness

Figures effective December 2022. 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