Retirees Get a 3.6% Raise in 2027. Workers Who Stay Put Are Getting Less.
Social Security checks are about to grow faster than the paychecks of many people who stay in their jobs.
The 2027 COLA at a glance
The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2027.
Here's what that means:
- Nearly 72 million Social Security beneficiaries will see the increase starting in January 2027.
- The average retirement benefit will rise by about $75 a month.
- Higher payments for people on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) begin on December 31, 2026.
Beneficiaries don't need to do anything to get the increase.
How the COLA is calculated
The adjustment is based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
It compares prices in the third quarter of 2026 with the same quarter a year earlier.
In other words, the COLA follows prices, not what employers pay.
Why wage growth tells a different story
Wage growth depends on things like labor demand, skills, industry conditions, and whether someone changes jobs.
The Atlanta Fed's Wage Growth Tracker shows that people who stayed in their jobs saw a median 3.4% raise in September (three-month average), down from 3.6% the month before.
That is slightly below the 3.6% COLA.
The tracker reports the median change in individuals' hourly wages measured 12 months apart.
It is not a perfect like-for-like comparison with the COLA, but it gives a useful sense of scale.
Could switching jobs pay more?
People who changed jobs saw median wage growth of 4.7% in September, down from 5.0% in August.
That puts job switchers ahead of both stayers and the COLA.
Individual results vary, so a new job is not a guaranteed raise.
Inflation is still the backdrop
The Consumer Price Index rose 3.7% in September compared with a year earlier.
The 2027 COLA is the largest since 2023, when beneficiaries saw an 8.7% increase after the inflation surge, and it follows a 2.8% adjustment for 2026.
Higher prices still shape retirees' budgets and workers' push for better pay.
Don't forget Medicare
Part of the COLA will be absorbed by a rising Medicare Part B premium, which is projected at $209.50 a month in 2027, up $6.60 from this year, according to Medicare's most recent trustees report.
Beneficiaries will see the 2027 Medicare premium in their my Social Security Message Center starting in late November.
The SSA also cleaned up its records
The SSA says it has corrected nearly 15% of all active Social Security numbers since the start of the current administration.
The agency says the work includes:
- Adding 17 million dates of death to records that lacked them.
- Updating about 25 million records that had missing citizenship information.
- Correcting another 8.5 million records with inaccurate citizenship status, which is still in progress.
Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano said accurate records prevent fraud and support the proper administration of benefits.
