Since 1975, Social Security general benefit increases have been cost-of-living adjustments or COLAs. The 1975-82 COLAs were effective with Social Security benefits payable for June in each of those years; thereafter COLAs have been effective with benefits payable for December.
Prior to 1975, Social Security benefit increases were set by legislation.
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| a The COLA for December 1999 was originally determined as 2.4 percent based on CPIs published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pursuant to Public Law 106-554, however, this COLA is effectively now 2.5 percent. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The first COLA, for June 1975, was based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) from the second quarter of 1974 to the first quarter of 1975. The 1976-83 COLAs were based on increases in the CPI-W from the first quarter of the prior year to the corresponding quarter of the current year in which the COLA became effective. After 1983, COLAs have been based on increases in the CPI-W from the third quarter of the prior year to the corresponding quarter of the current year in which the COLA became effective.
SSI COLAs
COLAs for the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program are generally the same as those for the Social Security program. However, COLAs for SSI have generally been effective for the month following the effective month of Social Security benefit increases. See SSI historical payment standards for more detail.
COLAs for the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program are generally the same as those for the Social Security program. However, COLAs for SSI have generally been effective for the month following the effective month of Social Security benefit increases. See SSI historical payment standards for more detail.
it takes one to know one?
Trump used his State of the Union address to appeal to blue collar workers, but was it enough?
During his third State of the Union speech Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump made a direct appeal to the blue-collar Americans who helped propel him into office in 2016.
The 78-minute speech, which included a surprise Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony for right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh, defined the themes that will come to dominate Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign and a potential second term in the White House. Topping that list is what Trump is calling a "blue-collar boom."
Trump’s 2016 campaign messaging spoke directly to those working-class Americans who felt left out of the economic boom under former President Barack Obama and alienated by the going-ons of establishment in Washington, D.C.
The calls to “drain the swamp” were effective: Hillary Clinton lost key rust-belt states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, as well as the support of white, non-college-educated voters nationally. Many of those voters who swung right had come out to support Obama just four years before.
But in 2020, the President faces a new and difficult challenge. He must convince these voters that he’s made their lives better: a more nuanced and uphill task than exploiting discontent.
“We know the manufacturing sector in the U.S. has been experiencing contraction over the last six months,” says Mark Hamrick, Bankrate.com’s senior economic analyst.
The industry fell into its deepest slump in a decade this December as the trade war with China continued on. But Trump described the U.S. economy as the “best it has ever been,” and claimed we were in the midst of a “great American comeback.”
Laid-off factory workers may find that sentiment divorced from their own.
“[This] might be viewed as a kind of 'mission accomplished' claim for the man who vowed to make America great again," said Hamrick, referencing former President George W. Bush’s premature claims that the war in Iraq was successfully wrapping up.
Trump has made a big point of trying to appeal to Midwest workers with talks of his trade deals and tariffs, but if they’re not feeling the difference in their personal economies, they'll see through those claims, said Matt Morrison, executive director of Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO. He pointed to the successful election of Democratic Congressman in Pennsylvania's typically conservative 18th district as proof. Still, he says, “it’s better to say someone's name than ignore them altogether.”
Early numbers, however, show that the President's blue-collar begging amounted to little more than preaching to the choir.
Working America surveyed 1,255 registered and likely voters from Minnesota, Ohio, and North Carolina immediately after the State of the Union address and found that the speech served mostly as a rally for those who had already made up their minds to vote for Trump.
“Of the 2016 Trump voters who tuned into the SOTU, most have already made up their minds to support President Trump's re-election campaign in 2020 (90%),” the survey, shared first with Fortune, found. “But the 2016 Trump voters who did not watch the SOTU are less sure about who they are voting for in 2020. Only 57% plan on supporting Trump in 2020.”
The median household income of those surveyed was $58,124, and 34% of those surveyed had a college degree.
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Get up to speed on your morning commute with Fortune’s CEO Daily newsletter.
—Fortune Explains: The debt ceiling—Millions have been purged from voter rolls—and may not even realize it
Get up to speed on your morning commute with Fortune’s CEO Daily newsletter.
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