Getting out, military retirement, military to civilian transition - Marine Corps Times

Other benefits: Cost-of-living adjustments

Retired pay rises each year to ensure inflation does not erode retirees’ purchasing power. These cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, are based on changes in the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, a measure of the costs of certain categories of goods and services, over the final three months of each fiscal year — July through September.

The annual retiree adjustment usually is approved each Dec. 1, and first appears in January retired paychecks. It matches the annual increase in Social Security benefits.

The most recent increase, which took effect Jan. 1, 2008, was 2.3 percent.