Should we lobby to have military retirement receive the same COLA as active duty?

2015-10-15T21:56:33-04:00

Its just been announced that Social Security will not be getting a COLA. (See below article.) That means military retirees get no COLA. This is clearly not fair! Many people, including members of Congress, think that retirement pay is too generous. They don't realize that 20 years in NOT 50% of your total compensation. Because its only based on BASIC PAY, its less than 40% probably closer to 30-35%. Plus its decays significantly further down the road because in most years COLAs are smaller than active duty increases if they get one at all. A person who's been retired for 20 years is probably not seeing much more than 20% of total compensation for his/her rank, yet prices go up just the same for that retiree. In addition, I am very confused at how the government calculates inflation. Yes gas is down for now, but that is a temporary and volatile indicator. Food and medical care is going up. Education costs are going up. My condo homeowners dues is going up. Rents are going up. I think its time that Congress pass legislation that ties military retirement pay increases with active duty increases not with Social Security cost of living increases. In addition for Social Security COLAs, the government should use a more realistic indicator of real cost of living, not the smoke and mirrors they use now!

http://www.aol.com/article/2015/10/15/government-no-benefit-hike-for-social-security-next-year/21249607/

Government: No benefit hike for Social Security next year

It's just the third time in 40 years that payments will remain flat. All three times have come since 2010.

Response by COL Charles Williams made Oct 15 at 2015 10:00 PM

2015-10-15T22:00:44-04:00

Yes, that would be awesome... and expensive...

Response by CAPT Jim Murphy made Apr 2 at 2019 4:23 PM

2019-04-02T16:23:27-04:00

Retired Pay and Social Security pay both get Cola increases, if the index is above the baseline the year before. Sometimes it’s higher than AD pay increases, sometimes not.

Response by CAPT Jim Murphy made Apr 2 at 2019 4:32 PM

2019-04-02T16:32:56-04:00

The article referenced above was from 2015. It was a year inflation did not rise above the previous year’s COLA baseline. Retired folks receive COLA to keep their retirement pay in line with inflation. AD get pay raises. Sometimes COLA is higher than AD pay raises, some years not. COLA increases are the same for both Retired Pay and Social Security.