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Want the Max $5,108 Social Security Benefit? Here’s the Salary You Need.

Updated: 06-11-2024, 08.10 PM

The average Social Security retirement benefit was $1,921.56 in September. While that might be a nice supplement to your retirement savings, it’s hardly enough for most retirees to live on. That’s especially true when you consider the rapidly rising costs of healthcare and housing.

But if you earn enough during your career, you could receive a lot more from Social Security when you retire. The maximum possible benefit in 2025 will be $5,108 per month, and that amount will climb every year going forward thanks to the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, baked into Social Security.

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The biggest hurdle to receiving that maximum benefit is earning a high enough salary over the course of your career. Only a tiny percentage of Americans will ever qualify for the maximum benefit. But if you want to become one of them, here’s how much you need to earn.

A check from the United States Treasury in an envelope.
Image source: Getty Images.

Before we get to how much you need to earn to maximize your Social Security benefits, it’s important to understand how the government calculates your retirement check. There are three factors that play a role in the calculation:

  • Your earnings history

  • When you were born

  • When you claim benefits

Once you claim Social Security benefits, the government will take a look at your past wages. It doesn’t just look at what you earned in your last year of employment; it goes back through your entire career. It adjusts every year’s earnings for wage inflation tied to an index from the year you turned 60. Any earnings after age 60 aren’t adjusted.

The Social Security Administration will take your 35 highest adjusted-earnings years and find your average monthly earnings. It then plugs that average into the Social Security benefits formula (which is impacted by when you were born) to determine your primary insurance amount, or PIA. That’s the amount you’ll receive if you apply for benefits the month you reach full retirement age.

Your full retirement age is determined by the year you were born. Those born between 1943 and 1954 reached full retirement age at 66. Your full retirement age increases by two months for each year you were born after 1954 until maxing out at age 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.

If you claim benefits before your full retirement age, you’ll see a reduction in benefits relative to your PIA. But if you wait beyond your full retirement age, you’ll get more from Social Security for each month you delay up until age 70. Someone born in 1955 has a full retirement age of 66 and two months, and they can collect nearly 31% on top of their PIA by waiting until age 70 to claim.

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