Social Security Earnings Test

The test applies only while you are younger than full retirement age and receiving retirement or survivor benefits. In every calendar year before the one in which you reach that age, the limit is $24,480 for 2026, and SSA withholds $1 of benefits for every $2 you earn above it. In the year you reach full retirement age, the limit rises to $65,160, only earnings in the months before you reach that age count, and the withholding drops to $1 for every $3.

From the month you reach full retirement age, earnings stop mattering: the test simply ends, however much you make. It does not apply to disability benefits, which use a separate work test built around substantial gainful activity, $1,690 a month for non-blind people in 2026.

Both limits rise with the national average wage index rather than with prices, but by law only in a year when a cost-of-living adjustment takes effect, and they never fall. They were $23,400 and $62,160 in 2025. A survivor is tested against the full retirement age for retirement benefits, even when the survivor full retirement age is earlier.

Only money you earn by working counts. The law adds up your wages for work done in the year and your net earnings from self-employment, minus any self-employment loss. Wages count before payroll deductions such as taxes and insurance, and pay above the Social Security tax cap still counts, even though it adds nothing to your benefit. Because wages belong to the year the work was done, a bonus paid after you claim for work done earlier can be left out, though you may need to show SSA when it was earned.

Income that does not come from work is ignored. A retiree drawing $80,000 a year from savings can claim at 62 with nothing withheld, while one earning $40,000 in wages would have up to $7,760 withheld in 2026.

Many people claim partway through a year after already earning well above the annual limit. A special rule, available for one grace year, lets SSA pay a full benefit for any whole month you are considered retired, no matter what you earned earlier in the year.

In 2026, a month counts as retired if your wages that month are $2,040 or less, or $5,430 or less if you reach full retirement age during 2026, and you do not perform substantial services in self-employment. SSA treats more than 45 hours a month in your business, or 15 to 45 hours in a highly skilled occupation, as substantial.

After the grace year, only the annual test applies. Someone who retires at the end of June after earning $60,000, claims from July and does no paid work afterward receives full checks from July. If that person takes a part-time job the following year, that year’s annual limit decides everything, whatever they earn in any single month.

When SSA expects your earnings to exceed the limit, it charges the excess against your full monthly checks from the beginning of the year until the withholding is covered, rather than trimming every check. It works from your estimate of the year’s earnings and corrects the figure once actual earnings are reported.

The money is deferred rather than forfeited. At full retirement age, SSA recalculates your benefit as if you had not claimed in the months it withheld. With a full retirement age of 67, claiming at 62 pays 70% of your primary insurance amount. If 12 months were withheld along the way, the benefit is refigured at 67 as though you had claimed 48 months early, which pays 75%: $1,500 instead of $1,400 a month on a $2,000 PIA. You come out even only if you collect the higher check long enough, the same trade-off behind the break-even age.

Your earnings can also affect others. Excess earnings on your record reduce the benefits of a spouse or children drawing on it, except, generally, a spouse divorced from you for at least two years, while a family member’s own earnings reduce only that person’s benefit.