Shanghai rate history — COLA (Post Allowance) (%). Query any past effective date directly via the API.
| Effective date | COLA (Post Allowance) (%) |
|---|---|
| Jul 12, 2026 | 42% |
| Apr 19, 2026 | 42% |
| Apr 5, 2026 | 35% |
| Mar 8, 2026 | 42% |
| Feb 8, 2026 | 35% |
| Nov 30, 2025 | 42% |
| Nov 3, 2024 | 35% |
| Oct 6, 2024 | 42% |
| Nov 19, 2023 | 35% |
| May 7, 2023 | 50% |
| Apr 9, 2023 | 60% |
| Mar 12, 2023 | 50% |
| Jan 29, 2023 | 60% |
| May 8, 2022 | 50% |
| Oct 10, 2021 | 60% |
| Oct 11, 2020 | 42% |
| Jun 21, 2020 | 20% |
| Jun 7, 2020 | 15% |
| Apr 26, 2020 | 20% |
| Apr 12, 2020 | 15% |
| Oct 27, 2019 | 20% |
| Oct 13, 2019 | 15% |
| Sep 29, 2019 | 20% |
| Sep 15, 2019 | 15% |
| May 26, 2019 | 20% |
| May 12, 2019 | 25% |
| Feb 17, 2019 | 35% |
| Aug 19, 2018 | 30% |
| Jul 8, 2018 | 35% |
| Feb 4, 2018 | 42% |
| Aug 6, 2017 | 35% |
| Nov 27, 2016 | 30% |
| May 15, 2016 | 35% |
| Apr 17, 2016 | 42% |
| Jan 24, 2016 | 35% |
| Aug 23, 2015 | 42% |
| Apr 5, 2015 | 50% |
| Feb 8, 2015 | 42% |
| Jul 13, 2014 | 50% |
| May 4, 2014 | 42% |
| Jan 12, 2014 | 50% |
The same location's rates under other U.S. travel-rate systems:
The post (cost-of-living) allowance offsets higher overseas costs of goods and services for U.S. government civilian employees assigned to Shanghai. It is expressed as a percentage of spendable income and is used by mobility, HR and payroll teams to compute overseas compensation.
The exact request that returns this page's data. Change the
date parameter to query any historical effective
date, or pull it straight into your ERP, payroll, or expense system.
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \ "https://api.allowancesapi.com/v1/dssr/allowances/CN?type=cola"{
"effective_date": "2026-07-12",
"results": [
{
"cola": {
"effective_date": "2026-07-12",
"rate": 42
},
"iso_code": "CN",
"location": "Shanghai",
"postcode": "10256"
}
],
"verification_url": "https://aoprals.state.gov/content.asp?content_id=184\u0026menu_id=78"
}The current DSSR COLA (Post Allowance) rate for Shanghai, China is 42%, effective Jul 12, 2026.
In Apr 19, 2026 the COLA (Post Allowance) rate was 42%. The full history is shown in the table above and is queryable by effective date via the API.
Allowances API is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any U.S. Government agency. All rate data is sourced from official public rate tables and re-published in a normalized format.