Why do senior citizens get smaller cost of living raises than Pennsylvania officials? [Lancaster Watchdog] | Local News

Sometimes it helps to ask the obvious question.

Mountville resident Joanne Knaub, a regular reader of this column, called the Watchdog last week with a question that a lot of older Pennsylvanians might be asking.

After Gov. Josh Shapiro got a 3.3% cost of living salary bump Jan. 1, making him the highest-paid governor in the country, Joanne, who is 81, was wondering why she got only a 2.8% cost of living increase in her Social Security check.

“I’m sure he doesn’t live near as modestly as I do,” Joanne said. “I thought it would have been at least equal to my cost of living increase, that it would be more fair.”

After working for ITT Engineered Valves in East Hempfield Township for 33 years, Joanne has a pension, but she said her pension check is only about half as big as her Social Security check, which she relies on to pay her expenses, as do many of her friends.

This year, the average Social Security benefit for a retired American worker is $2,071 a month.

Joanne wants folks to know that her question about the size of Shapiro’s raise is not a political one. Though she is a lifelong Republican and straight-ticket voter, she said she crossed the aisle for the first and only time in 2022 to vote for Shapiro because she thought he did a good job as Pennsylvania’s attorney general.

For Joanne, the disparity in the cost of living adjustments is a simple matter of fairness.

For state legislators — who passed the law that ensures they, along with the governor and a host of other top state brass, get annual raises — the cost of living adjustment is a simple matter of formula.

PENNSYLVANIA’S TOP SALARIES

Following are some of the top salaried positions in state government, effective Jan. 1, after a 3.3% cost of living increase.

• Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, $278,496.

• Supreme Court justices, $270,622.

• President judges of the Superior and Commonwealth courts, $263,216.

• Superior and Commonwealth court judges, $255,346.

• Governor, $253,870

• Court of common pleas judges, including Lancaster County Court, $234,916.

• Lieutenant Governor, $213,248.

• State Treasurer, $211,219.

• Auditor General, $211,219.

• Attorney General, $211,219.

Source: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

The calculations

The state budget office figures out cost of living raises for legislators, state row officers, local and state judges and the governor by consulting the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, which measures what it costs for people in American cities to live.

The index shows, for instance, the biggest year-over-year cost increases in 2025 came from hospital services, vehicle repairs, gas and electric utilities and fuel oil. It also reports fun facts, like a basket of groceries that cost $100 in 1983 now costs $343.80.

Sorry, that fact isn’t exactly fun.

The key factor accounting for the difference between the governor’s pay bump and Joanne’s pay bump is this: To figure its raises, Pennsylvania uses a regional report of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, which focuses on cities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. Because price inflation in the Northeast tends to be the highest in the nation, Pennsylvania’s cost of living adjustments are higher.

The index’s national average cost of living increase for August 2025, which was the month the budget office used for its calculations, was 2.9% — more in line with the Social Security increase — but the cost of living increase in the Northeast at that time was 3.3%, thus the higher raise.

The Social Security Administration bases its cost of living increase on a national average determined by a different index, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners, which pulls data from a narrower sample set keyed to the American labor force. The national average cost of living increase it derived was 2.8%, not far off from the Urban Consumers Index’s national average.

The ethics

The decision to give the governor a 3.3% cost of living raise was not an overtly political one; the same raise went to Democratic and Republican bigwigs alike.

Notably, Republican state Treasurer and gubernatorial hopeful Stacy Garrity got the same percentage bump as Shapiro, whom she hopes to oust from office in the Nov. 3 general election.

While the raises aren’t blatantly political in nature, politics does account for the disparity. Because of their positions in Harrisburg, the state’s political elite — the governor, lieutenant governor, state treasurer, auditor general, attorney general and members of state boards and commissions — benefit from a more generous, and more accurate, cost of living calculation.

It’s worth noting that in Lancaster County, the district attorney, county court judges and magisterial district judges also reap the more favorable salary adjustment.

The real question here: Why aren’t the Social Security benefits of senior citizens, who often operate on fixed incomes and remain vulnerable to inflationary pressures, adjusted to account for regional differences in the cost of living?

The Watchdog put that question to the Philadelphia office of the Social Security Administration, which responded simply, “The law does not provide for regional or state-specific adjustments.”

Well, laws can change.

The federal government has the power to modify how it calculates the cost of living adjustment for senior citizens, but it would take time, money and the political will to do so. For Lancaster County seniors who want to help their legislators find that political will, we’ve provided their contact information here.

Gov. Shapiro could lend his considerable voice to that effort as well. The cost of living increase for Pennsylvania seniors does not go as far or buy as much as the same adjustment in, say, southern states, and that doesn’t seem fair.

In commenting on this story, Shapiro’s office rightly noted that the governor has no control over the policy decisions of the Social Security Administration, but that doesn’t mean he can’t use his influence to call for change.

HOW TO CONTACT YOUR FEDERAL OFFICIALS

President Donald Trump, Republican. Oval Office: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500; phone: 202-456-1111. Online contact form: whitehouse.gov/contact.

Sen. Dave McCormick, Republican. Capitol office: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Suite B40C, Washington, DC 20510; phone: 202-224-6324. Harrisburg office: 200 N. Third St., Suite 14A, Harrisburg, PA 17101; phone: 717-231-7540. Online contact form: mccormick.senate.gov/contact.

Sen. John Fetterman, Democrat. Capitol office: 142 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510; phone: 202-224-4254. Harrisburg office: 320 Market St., Suite 475E, Harrisburg, PA 17101; phone: 717-782-3951. Online contact form: fetterman.senate.gov/contact.

Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-11th District. Capitol office: 302 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515; phone: 202-225-2411. District office: 2270 Erin Court, Lancaster, PA 17601; phone: 717-393-0667; Online contact form: smucker.house.gov/contact.

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