Excerpt from PERSpecive, published by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS)
OPERS has announced the cost-of-living adjustments that will be available for retirees in 2020.
Those whose retirement effective date is prior to Jan. 7, 2013, will continue to receive a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment.
Members whose effective date of retirement is on or after Jan. 7, 2013, are scheduled to have next year’s COLA based on the CPI-W, the government’s inflation index for urban wage earners and clerical workers. According to state law, the annual COLA for these retirees is to be based on the change in the CPI-W index from the end of June 2018 to the end of June this year.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the CPI-W index increased 1.40 percent over that period. (For reference, click on “CPI-W, June 2019” on this page of the Bureau of Labor Statistics website and refer to cell AD-7 in the spreadsheet.) Thus, the COLA issued to those retirees beginning with their 2020 benefit anniversary date will be 1.4 percent.
