Social Security (United States)

In the United States, Social Security is the commonly used term for the federalOld-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program and is administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA). The Social Security Act was passed in 1935, and the existing version of the Act, as amended, encompasses several social welfare and social insurance programs.

The average monthly Social Security benefit for May 2025 was $1,903. This was raised from $1,783 in 2024. The total cost of the Social Security program for 2022 was $1.244 trillion or about 5.2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). In 2025, there have been proposed budget cuts to social security.

Social Security is funded primarily through payroll taxes called the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) or Self Employed Contributions Act (SECA). Wage and salary earnings from covered employment, up to an amount determined by law (see tax rate table), are subject to the Social Security payroll tax. Wage and salary earnings above this amount are not taxed. In 2026, the maximum amount of taxable earnings is $184,500.

Social Security is nearly universal, with 94 percent of individuals in paid employment in the United States working in covered employment. However, about 6.6 million state and local government workers in the United States, or 28 percent of all state and local workers, are not covered by Social Security but rather pension plans operated at the state or local level.

Social Security payroll taxes are collected by the federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and are formally entrusted to the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund and the federal Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund, the two Social Security Trust Funds. Social Security revenues exceeded expenditures between 1983 and 2009, which increased trust fund balances. The retirement of the large baby-boom generation, however, is lowering balances. The 2026 Social Security trustees projected that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund would be depleted in the fourth quarter of 2032, when continuing program income would be sufficient to pay 78% of scheduled OASI benefits. On a hypothetical combined OASI and Disability Insurance basis, reserves were projected to be depleted in the third quarter of 2034, when 83% of scheduled benefits would be payable; the two funds cannot legally be combined without a change in law.

With few exceptions, all legal residents working in the United States have an individual Social Security Number.