The accumulation toward the third regular cost of living adjustment for letter carriers under the 2006-2011 National Agreement was $633 in May following the release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April 2008.

The actual COLA will reflect the increase in the CPI between January and July 2008. It will be payable the second full pay period following the release of the July 2008 index

Note: Although the COLA formula included in the contracts of all four postal unions is identical, the NALC’s second COLA of $458 annually is $21 less than the COLA payable to APWU- and NPMHU-represented employees, who will receive a COLA of $479 annually.

The one-penny-per-hour difference stems from a difference in the contracts’ base months, which results in different COLA amounts due to rounding rules.

The base month for the NALC COLA clause is May 2007, while the base month used by the APWU and the Mail Handlers is July 2006.

2009 Retiree COLA: 3.49%

The accumulation toward the 2009 retiree COLA was 3.49 percent in May following the release of the April Consumer Price Index.

The actual COLA will reflect the difference between the average Consumer Price Index for the third quarter of 2007 and the average CPI for the third quarter of 2008.

2009 FECA COLA: 2.4%

The accumulation toward the 2008 FECA COLA was at 2.4 percent following the release in May of the April 2008 CPI.

The 2009 FECA COLA will be based on the increase in the CPI between December 2007 and December 2008 and will become effective on March 1, 2009.

The 2008 FECA COLA of 4.3 percent became effective March 1.