“...The article says 1%. I believe they must mean 1 percentage point? The article also says it would cost the average retiring E7 about $3700 a year. That must have been one hell of a COLA....”
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That would be a 1% reduction per year, 1% the next year and so forth. I guess you’ve never heard of compound interest? It’s like that, only in reverse.
1.If a COLA is, let’s say, 2% of base pay then 1% of that is chump change.
2.The example given was $3700 a year. Again; if the COLA was 2% that means base pay was $185,000
3.It appears you don’t understand the difference between a percent and a percentage point either.