The highest monthly Social Security benefit that can be paid to a recipient in 2024 is $4,873, which corresponds to nearly $58,500 in annual retirement income. While this would certainly be a nice amount of inflation-protected income to have in retirement, the unfortunate reality is that few retired workers get the maximum.
To receive the maximum possible benefit, there are a few steps that you'll need to follow, but fewer than 1% of Americans who receive Social Security can check all three of these boxes.
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Step 1: Work for at least 35 years in Social Security covered employment
This is the easy part for most American workers. When determining your Social Security benefit, the Social Security Administration, or SSA, takes an average of your 35 highest-earning years.
If you've worked for fewer than 35 years, zeros are averaged into the formula. If zero-dollar years are used to compute your average earnings , your benefit won't be as high as it could be. So the first step toward claiming the maximum monthly Social Security benefit is to work for 35 years or more in employment covered by the program.
Step 2: Earn more than the Social Security taxable maximum for 35 years
Here's where it starts to become far more difficult to qualify for the maximum Social Security benefit. Each year, there's a maximum amount of income that's subject to Social Security tax, known as the contribution and benefit base. In 2024, this is $168,600. For historical context, the contribution and benefit base was $137,700 in 2020 and $106,800 in 2010. It increases over time to keep up with inflation.
When determining your Social Security benefit, the SSA takes each year's earnings for your entire career, up to the contribution and benefit base, and then applies an indexing factor to adjust it for inflation. To max out your Social Security benefit, you'll need to earn more than the contribution and benefit base in at least 35 different years.
It's also worth noting that the particular years can make a difference. Even if you earn the taxable maximum in at least 35 years, your benefit might not be exactly the maximum. For example:
- In 2000, the taxable maximum was $76,200. Applying the indexing factor of 1.9839990 to this shows an indexed earnings cap of $151,181 that can be used to calculate your benefit.
- In 2001, the taxable maximum was $80,400. Applying that year's indexing factor of 1.9377706 gives an earnings cap of $155,797 that can be used in the benefit formula.
The point is that not every year's taxable maximum indexes to the same number. Therefore, the combination of which 35 years you earned the most in will determine exactly what your benefit will be.
Step 3: Wait until you turn 70 to start collecting benefits
Here's the final step. Americans who qualify can start collecting Social Security as early as age 62, and the full retirement age (FRA) for people born in 1960 or later is 67 years old. On the other hand, you can wait until as late as age 70 to start collecting Social Security, and if you want the maximum possible benefit , that's exactly what you'll need to do.
Your Social Security benefit is permanently increased by 8% for every year you wait to claim beyond full retirement age, up to age 70. If your full retirement age is 67 years old and you wait until 70, your benefit will be 24% higher than it would have been if you started collecting it at your FRA.
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