Federal civilian retirees will not receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in 2016.
This will be the first year since 2011 that federal retirees do not receive a COLA. In 2010 and 2011 retiree pay was frozen along with pay of federal civilian employees. Federal retirees received a 1.7 percent COLA in 2015.
The reason why federal retirees will not receive a COLA in 2016 is that consumer prices have declined over the past year. The annual retiree COLA is calculated as the change in the average Consumer Price Index for Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W)—published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)—from the third quarter of the previous year to the third quarter of the current year. BLS reported that the (CPI-W) actually decreased from the third quarter of 2014 to the quarter of 2015, primarily due to the decline in gasoline prices.
Social Security recipients will also not receive a COLA in 2016 as the Social Security Administration uses the same calculation for Social Security COLAs.
In late August President Obama notified Congress that federal civilian employees should receive a 1.3 percent pay raise in 2016. The 1.3 percent pay raise is a combination of a 1.0 percent across-the-board raise announced in last week’s letter and an increase in locality pay raise the president said he will request later this year. If Congress takes no action on the pay raise when it completes the FY2016 appropriations bills, the president can issue an executive order implementing the raise.
except cost of living was up 1.9%
Interesting that after forty years all of a sudden gas prices are used as an excuse for the COLA for federal retirees, military retirees, disabled vets and social security receipients. Why would gas prices have anything to do with this now. Gas prices have just recently gone down, are still high in Kentucky and most social security receipients don’t even drive. Since President Obama was elected there have been three years that federal employees have gone without a COLA and now retirees are being affected. This is just another excuse for hard working Americans that have worked all their lives like myself to pay for those that don’t work and those on welfare. I’m sure though that Congress will see their big fat pay raise as they always do.
It sad that Federal Retires will not get a cost of living in 2016. Who control the price increases on Food? No COLAS, but food prices will continues to rise.
Utterly absurd. Gasoline…really. Now looking at a ridiculous increase in health insurance which will significantly reduce monthly pension. The COLA generally offsets that cost. Nonetheless, food prices are skyrocketing. How do we stay afloat.
There is something particularly scary about this bunch of legislators and that includes the Whitehouse. They have absolutely no idea what is really going on in this country. And for me that is real scary.
For both fed retirees and social security they need to create a price index that relates to spending by seniors. Heath care and food would be more impt, the price of gas less so. But what can we expect from this Congress?