How are the indexes calculated?
The initial step in calculating a CONUS COLA index for each area is to combine the expenditures for individual items into major commodity groups. Income taxes (federal, state, and local), FICA, and miscellaneous expenditures are the two categories for which the value remains constant, regardless of location. Individual locality expenditures for the other categories – transportation, goods and services (which includes food at home, food away from home, tobacco, alcohol, furnishings and household operations, clothing, domestic service, medical care, personal care, and recreation), and sales taxes are compared to those of the Standard City, resulting in a relative percentage. Deductions are made for commissaries and exchanges, if available. An additional adjustment is made for the Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS), since the BAS is an allowance for food for the military member. For CC 2008, BAS of $3886.64 was deducted from the sum of the expenditure for taxes, transportation, goods a
The initial step in calculating a CONUS COLA index for each area is to combine the expenditures for individual items into major commodity groups. Income taxes (federal, state, and local), FICA, and miscellaneous expenditures are the two categories for which the value remains constant, regardless of location. Individual locality expenditures for the other categories transportation, goods and services (which includes food at home, food away from home, tobacco, alcohol, furnishings and household operations, clothing, domestic service, medical care, personal care, and recreation), and sales taxes are compared to those of the Standard City, resulting in a relative percentage. Deductions are made for commissaries and exchanges, if available. An additional adjustment is made for the Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS), since the BAS is an allowance for food for the military member. For CC 2006, BAS of $3267.12 was deducted from the sum of the expenditure for taxes, transportation, goods and
