Social Security Facts

The following chart shows the current social security percent of earnings payments made by those whose earnings are at or below the social security tax cap and those whose earnings are above the cap. You can see how the percentage of income paid into Social security by those above the cap decreases with their increased earnings. There are approximately 5.1 million earners above the cap and the new income from removing the cap would generate over 300 billion new dollars a year for the social security trust fund.

In 2025, the combined Social Security trust funds collected $1.32 trillion in net payroll tax contributions.

When adding other income sources—such as income taxation of benefits and interest earnings—the total income for the combined trust funds reached $1.45 trillion.

The Income taxation of benefits refers to the tax applied to Medicare premiums for those whose savings income is above a certain threshold. This is known as the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA). IRMAA increases the cost for Medicare recipients without adding any additional benefits.

The Social Security Administration only taxes and calculates benefits based on earned income, which is specifically defined as wages from a job or net earnings from self-employment. Social Security would have collected 1.75 trillion dollars by removing the cap on earnings.

While the wage earning working class pays 6.2% of their earnings into SSI the wealthy elite pay a diminishing percentage of their wages and none of their investment income into the SSI system. Removing the cap on earnings would make SSI solvent. Removing the cap would also create a more equitable responsibility balance in society. What is the value of 6.2% of earnings to a person making $50,000 a year compared to a person making $500,000 a year paying 2.3%?