Excerpt from the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System newsletter
Cost-of-living adjustments for OPERS benefit recipients in 2025 will be either 3% or 2.9%, depending on when retirees began receiving a benefit.
While those with a benefit effective date prior to Jan. 7, 2013, automatically receive a 3% adjustment, those with an effective date after that date have their COLAs based on the Consumer Price Index-W, the government’s inflation index for urban wage earners and clerical workers.
According to state law, the annual COLA for those retirees is to be based on the change in the CPI-W from the end of June 2023 to the end of June this year, with a maximum
adjustment of 3%. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the CPI-W increased 2.9% over that period, so OPERS’ CPI-based COLA for 2024 will be 2.9%.
OPERS’ inflation-based COLA uses the same index as Social Security. But the time period measured is different, so the adjustments might not always match up.
The adjustment is calculated on recipients’ original monthly benefit and is paid on the anniversary of their benefit effective date. COLAs will be paid next year to those with a benefit effective date of Dec. 1, 2024, or earlier.
- Read more in PERSpective
