Provided by James R. Martin, Ph.D., CMA
Professor Emeritus, University of South Florida
Inflation and Replacement Cost Accounting Main | Economics Related Main |
History and Development Main
The consumer price index or CPI and the CPI-W are two popular measures of the rate of inflation. The CPI-W is the Consumer Price Index for uban wage earners and clerical workers. The two following illustrations of the CPI are based on data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.1
Social Security COLAs
Cost-of-living allowances (COLAs) for Social Security benefits started in 1975. COLAs are based on the CPI-W. As noted above this is the Consumer Price Index for uban wage earners and clerical workers.2
The following graphic illustrations compare the CPI and CPI-W based COLA from 1975-2023. Over this 49 year period, the COLA was greater than the CPI 18 times, less that the CPI 26 times, and equal to the CPI 5 times.
1 The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
4 Inflation CalculatorRelated Summaries
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