Out of 372 state and local pension plans, 98 either had no cost-of-living-adjustment rules or they were suspended for various reasons, based on data analyzed by Equable Institute. Another 70 had ad hoc COLAs created by state legislatures or pension fund boards.
The balance, 204 plans, have automatic COLAs, but these have different options. While 118 pension plans have them tied to inflation, there were 46 that have a fixed amount (a specified dollar amount or percentage increase determined ahead of time), and 14 were linked to plan performance measures such as funded status or investment return. There were 26 plans that had their COLAs connected to both inflation and performance.
