The Social Security program was first introduced nearly a century ago with the goal of preventing elder poverty. Today, the program has amassed tens of millions of beneficiaries, many of whom rely solely on their monthly Social Security benefit check to get by during their retirement. Spending your retirement years comfortably with a stable and adequate source of income requires a bit of strategy, not only throughout your working career, but when you retire as well.
Throughout your working career, you will contribute a percentage of your earnings towards the dedicated Social Security payroll tax, which will in turn earn you work credits. In order to claim benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA) upon your retirement, you will need to have accumulated a minimum of forty work credits. Since your Social Security payroll tax contributions are based on your salary (and the wage cap), the benefit amount paid out by the SSA will differ from person to person.
Your salary and payroll tax contributions are not the sole determining factors of how much you will receive in your monthly Social Security check, however. As such, here is everything you need to know about how Social Security benefits are calculated, as well as what you would need to do to receive the maximum benefit amount.
How are Social Security benefits calculated?
When you are working and earning wages or a salary, you will contribute 6.2% of your earnings towards the dedicated Social Security payroll tax. Your employer will also contribute 6.2% towards this payroll tax, bringing your total contribution up to 12.4%. It is not necessarily your entire salary that is considered, however. This is because the program has a wage cap, or maximum taxable earnings in place.
In 2025, the wage cap is $176,100, which means that any income exceeding this threshold will not be considered when you are making your 6.2% payroll tax contribution. Subsequently, when you are actually claiming your benefits, the calculation used to determine your benefit amount takes 35 of your highest earning years into account.
Lastly, the age at which you decide to claim can either increase or decrease your benefit check. Social Security can be claimed from age 62, however, this is not the Full Retirement Age. A claimant will only qualify for their full benefits if they have reached Full Retirement Age, if not, their benefits will be subject to a reduction of up to 30% since it will be considered as claiming early. Conversely, delaying claiming until you are 70 will earn you around 124% of your full benefit amount.
Since the 1983 amendments, the Full Retirement Age has been increasing in two month increments annually so as to bring it up to 67 years of age. The program was amended this way in order to account for growing life expectancy, as well as to maintain the financial health of the program. In 2026, the Full Retirement Age will finally reach 67 years of age which will apply to those born in 1960 and later.
How to get the maximum Social Security check
In 2025, the maximum check paid out by the SSA totals to $5,108, and in order to earn this, you will need to have done three things:
- You will need to have worked for a minimum of 35 years. If you have worked for less than 35 years, the benefit formula will assume an income of $0 for the years you have not worked which would bring down your total.
- You will also need to have earned a salary that is equivalent to the wage cap or higher for each respective year of your 35 highest earning years.
- Lastly, you will have to delay claiming benefits until you are 70 years old, thereby earning you delayed retirement credits and increasing your benefits by around 24% more than you would have received if you claimed at Full Retirement Age.