Harger: Seattle-area seniors are getting a raise. At the grocery store, it’s a pay cut

My mom is 82. She’s getting a raise.

She didn’t ask for one, and she didn’t threaten to leave for a better offer. Social Security is most of her income, and last week the Social Security Administration announced checks will go up 3.6% in January.

Which is good. She needs it. But that raise is getting gobbled up by inflation. In the Seattle area, groceries are up 4.5% over the past year. Meat, eggs, and fresh produce are up 6.4%. Eating out is up 6%. Gas is pushing $5.40 a gallon.

My mom’s working days are behind her. She uses a walker. She is not physically able to work a Saturday shift at the store to make a little extra money. Millions of seniors who worked their whole lives are in the same spot, watching the grocery bill outrun the Social Security check. And they’ve got company. Working families living on the margins are on the same money treadmill, and somebody keeps nudging up the speed.

Seattle-area grocery prices are outrunning the Social Security raise

Those grocery numbers come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area. Nationally, grocery prices rose just 1.8%. Around here, they rose two and a half times that much.

We’ve managed to make even inflation more expensive in Seattle.

Then there’s gas. Regular in Washington averages $5.37 a gallon, according to AAA, up 95 cents from a year ago.

Diesel is up $2.31 a gallon. You don’t have to drive a diesel to care about that number. Your groceries ride in trucks.

Take a senior getting $2,000 a month. In January, that becomes $2,072.

But measured against Seattle-area grocery prices, that $2,072 buys what about $1,983 bought a year ago. They got a raise and lost about $17 a month. At the meat counter, where prices are up 6.4%, it’s closer to $53.

People who’ve never asked anybody for anything are leaning on their kids to cover groceries. Some are standing in line at a food bank for the first time in their lives.

Medicare premiums are the hidden tax on the Social Security raise

And that’s before Medicare takes its cut.

For most seniors, the Medicare Part B premium comes straight out of the Social Security check. They never see that money. Last year, the cost-of-living raise was 2.8%. On a $2,000 check, that’s about $56. Then the Part B premium jumped $17.90, to $202.90 a month. Close to a third of the raise was gone before it ever hit the bank.

The 2027 premium hasn’t been announced yet. Early projections put it around $209.50. So a slice of this year’s 3.6% is already spoken for, too.

There’s a rule that keeps a Medicare increase from shrinking a senior’s check. It doesn’t stop the raise from disappearing. Plenty of seniors open the January statement, see the bump, and then watch it get eaten twice. Once by Medicare. Once at the grocery store.

Washington’s working families are falling behind, too

A lot of working people can’t make the math work, either.

Over the past year, average hourly pay for rank-and-file American workers went up 3.3%. Prices for those same workers went up 3.9%. Take somebody making $25 an hour. They got a raise of about 83 cents. After inflation, they’re making about 14 cents an hour less than a year ago. Over a full-time year, roughly $300 disappears.

That may not seem like much. But if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, it’s skipping meals. It’s keeping the house cold in the winter. It’s putting off the car repair until the car makes the decision for you.

That’s if they were lucky enough to get a raise at all.

Social Security’s trust fund runs dry in 2032

The obvious answer is a bigger raise. I understand the appeal.

But a bigger check gets complicated in a hurry. Pump more money into the economy without more stuff to buy, and you risk feeding the same inflation you’re trying to fight. And there’s another number lurking behind the annual announcement.

Social Security’s own trustees said the retirement trust fund runs dry in 2032. If Congress does nothing, incoming revenue covers only about 78% of promised benefits. That’s a cut of about 22%.

Congress will get right on it, presumably, as soon as it finishes agreeing on everything else.

I’m worried about seniors. This COLA isn’t relief, and I worry things get a lot worse before they get better.

Why voters keep firing whoever’s in charge

Nobody expects a politician to personally set the price of hamburger. Presidents don’t run the egg aisle. Governors don’t change the numbers on the gas station sign.

But politicians campaign like they can deliver affordability. For several election cycles now, it’s been the word on every mailer. Every candidate promises to do something about it. Meanwhile, it keeps getting worse.

If you’re going to run on affordability, you should expect voters to check.

In 2024, voters were furious about prices, and they fired the party in the White House. Two years later, prices are still climbing, and pollsters are talking about a wave going the other way in the midterms.

Different party. Same grocery cart.

Food help for Seattle-area seniors who need it now

One more thing, because some of you reading this, or your parents, need help this month, not after the next election.

Millions of seniors qualify for food assistance and never sign up. AARP’s research arm found about 14 million adults 60 and older were eligible for SNAP, the federal food benefit, but weren’t enrolled. That’s roughly 6 in 10. In Washington, it’s called Basic Food, and you can apply through DSHS.

If I had one ask for Congress and Olympia that wouldn’t wait on fixing all of Social Security, it’d be this: boost food benefits for low-income seniors, and make them easier to sign up for. A senior who worked 40 years shouldn’t need a caseworker and a stack of paperwork to buy eggs.

Food banks are there, too. Food Lifeline and Northwest Harvest both help connect people with food banks around the state, and calling 211 can point you to what’s close.

That gets complicated fast outside the metro, though. In small or remote towns, the nearest food bank might be a long drive away, open a couple of days a week, and hard to reach for somebody who doesn’t drive anymore. A walker and a 30-mile round trip don’t mix. If you’ve got a parent in a place like that, check on them. Sometimes the best food program is a son or daughter with a car and a free Saturday.

Seniors spent a lifetime paying into this system. Most of them never asked anybody for anything. Now they’re getting a raise that’s gone before it clears the bank, and Congress is watching the 2032 clock like it’s somebody else’s problem.

Our seniors deserve better than this.

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.

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