Читать книгу Social Security For Dummies - Peterson Jonathan, Jonathan Peterson - Страница 31

Although you have to earn 40 credits to qualify for benefits, that doesn’t determine the size of the payment that goes to you or your dependents. The SSA bases the amount of your benefit on your lifetime earnings — specifically (for workers born after 1928), the 35 highest-paid years in which you paid Social Security taxes. Your 35 highest years don’t have to be consecutive, and they don’t have to be the most recent 35 years, but 35 is an important number. If you have fewer than 35 years of earnings, the SSA adds zeros to reach 35. The impact of those zeros varies depending on your earnings history.

As you may expect, more career earnings mean a bigger benefit. Highly paid workers who contributed more taxes throughout their working careers end up with bigger Social Security payments, although the benefit formula is skewed to provide low earners a larger share of their working wages in retirement than high earners receive.

Social Security benefits rise because of cost-of-living increases that are meant to help retirees keep up with inflation. Congress may debate whether to modify the cost-of-living formula to save money or even to increase payouts, but the importance of inflation protection is widely recognized, and it remains one of the most important and popular features of Social Security.