2025 COLA

The 2025 Cost-of-Living (COLA) for Social Security and federal retirees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) will be 2.5%.  Retirees in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) will receive 2%.

The Social Security Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) as determined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Current law provides FERS COLAs are capped at 2% when the CPI-W increases between 2 and 3 percent and are reduced by 1 percentage point when the CPI-W increases by 3 percent or more.

While NARFE celebrates the COLA announcement, not all in the federal community will reap its full benefits.  FERS annuitants will not receive the full COLA.  That is why NARFE supports the Equal COLA Act, H.R. 866, which would correct this unfair policy and bring COLAs for the more than 1 million FERS retirees and survivors in line with the full COLAs that CSRS retirees and Social Security beneficiaries receive.  You can join NARFE’s advocacy efforts to strengthen and safeguard COLAs by urging support for H.R. 866 here!