For more than eight decades, Social Security has laid down a financial foundation for aging workers who could no longer provide for themselves. Based on an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the program lifted 22.7 million people above the federal poverty line in 2022, including 16.5 million adults aged 65 and over.
Yet, the interesting thing about America's top retirement program is that the average monthly payout tends to be fairly modest.
What you get each month from Social Security depends largely on variables unique to you. Let's briefly walk through the factors responsible for determining your monthly Social Security check and take a comprehensive look at the average monthly Social Security benefit by age.
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How is your Social Security benefit calculated?
Although Social Security can be somewhat complex and confusing, the four variables relied on by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to calculate your monthly benefit are easy to understand. These four "ingredients" are your:
- Work history
- Earnings history
- Full retirement age
- Claiming age
The initial two components go hand-in-hand. The SSA accounts for your 35 highest-earning, inflation-adjusted years when calculating your monthly check. If you earn more (we're talking about wages and salary but not investment income) throughout your lifetime, there's a good chance you'll receive a beefier Social Security payout during retirement.
The caveat is that the SSA will also penalize retirees who haven't worked for at least 35 years. For every year less than 35 worked, the SSA averages $0 into your calculation.
Your full retirement age is the point where you become eligible to receive 100% of your monthly retired-worker benefit. Since it's determined by your birth year, it's the one factor you have no control over. Most of today's workforce (i.e., people born in or after 1960) has a full retirement age of 67.
The fourth variable used to calculate your monthly Social Security check is your claiming age. Deciding when to begin collecting benefits can, arguably, swing the payout pendulum more than any other factor.
Although retired workers become eligible to take their benefits as early as age 62, Social Security offers a monetary incentive to encourage patience. For every year a worker waits to collect their payout, beginning at age 62 and continuing through age 69, their check can grow by as much as 8%, as shown in the table below.
| Birth Year | Age 62 | Age 63 | Age 64 | Age 65 | Age 66 | Age 67 | Age 68 | Age 69 | Age 70 |
| 1943-1954 | 75% | 80% | 86.7% | 93.3% | 100% | 108% | 116% | 124% | 132% |
| 1955 | 74.2% | 79.2% | 85.6% | 92.2% | 98.9% | 106.7% | 114.7% | 122.7% | 130.7% |
| 1956 | 73.3% | 78.3% | 84.4% | 91.1% | 97.8% | 105.3% | 113.3% | 121.3% | 129.3% |
| 1957 | 72.5% | 77.5% | 83.3% | 90% | 96.7% | 104% | 112% | 120% | 128% |
| 1958 | 71.7% | 76.7% | 82.2% | 88.9% | 95.6% | 102.7% | 110.7% | 118.7% | 126.7% |
| 1959 | 70.8% | 75.8% | 81.1% | 87.8% | 94.4% | 101.3% | 109.3% | 117.3% | 125.3% |
| 1960 or later | 70% | 75% | 80% | 86.7% | 93.3% | 100% | 108% | 116% | 124% |
Data source: Social Security Administration.
How much do you get a month for Social Security?
With a better understanding of how your unique variables can affect your Social Security benefit, let's dig into the meat-and-potatoes of what you want to know: How much do you get a month for Social Security?
Based on the SSA's monthly snapshot, the average benefit for the 51 million retired workers in May was $1,916.63, which works out to $23,000 on an annualized basis.
But we can take things one step further and break down average annual retired-worker checks by age.
Every year, the SSA's Office of the Actuary publishes the average monthly Social Security benefit from ages 62 through 99-plus. Just keep in mind that the following table is based on the age of each recipient in December 2023 and may have nothing to do with the age at which they claimed benefits. For example, a retired worker receiving benefits at age 66 may have begun collecting their payout anywhere from ages 62 through 66.
| Age | Average Retirement Benefit | Age | Average Retirement Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | $1,298.26 | 81 | $1,943.00 |
| 63 | $1,338.65 | 82 | $1,942.41 |
| 64 | $1,459.73 | 83 | $1,920.50 |
| 65 | $1,563.06 | 84 | $1,882.72 |
| 66 | $1,739.92 | 85 | $1,864.04 |
| 67 | $1,883.50 | 86 | $1,833.70 |
| 68 | $1,948.37 | 87 | $1,779.58 |
| 69 | $1,945.18 | 88 | $1,755.44 |
| 70 | $2,037.54 | 89 | $1,752.01 |
| 71 | $2,050.67 | 90 | $1,757.84 |
| 72 | $2,023.00 | 91 | $1,781.97 |
| 73 | $1,990.43 | 92 | $1,769.78 |
| 74 | $2,000.45 | 93 | $1,763.11 |
| 75 | $2,012.14 | 94 | $1,762.84 |
| 76 | $1,982.36 | 95 | $1,769.85 |
| 77 | $1,996.49 | 96 | $1,773.24 |
| 78 | $1,949.44 | 97 | $1,753.36 |
| 79 | $1,942.45 | 98 | $1,761.40 |
| 80 | $1,940.24 | 99 and over | $1,715.05 |
Data source: Social Security Administration Office of the Actuary, as of December 2023. Table by author.
This table demonstrates the importance of patience if you want to meaningfully increase your monthly Social Security benefit. Whereas the earliest filers took home less than $1,300 in December 2023, recipients age 70 received a benefit that was, on average, 57% higher.
Depending on their birth year, claimants age 70 can expect their monthly Social Security payout to be between 24% and 32% higher than they would have received at full retirement age. Meanwhile, age 62 recipients are looking at a permanent monthly reduction ranging from 25% to 30%, depending on the year they're born.
You might also note that monthly benefits tend to taper off and flatten out after age 83. This dynamic has to do with women, on average, living longer than men.
This late-age decline in average Social Security checks is the result of more women than men staying at home to raise their children and thus missing out on earned income in the labor force. According to an analysis from Pew Research Center, between 4% and 9% of fathers were stay-at-home parents between 1989 and 2021. By comparison, 23% to 29% of mothers over the same timeline were stay-at-home parents.
Image source: Getty Images.
Three of the easiest ways to boost your Social Security benefit
While Social Security was never designed to make retirees rich, there are a few strategies that future retirees can use to beef up their eventual payout.
The first is, very simply, to exercise patience. As I pointed out earlier, for every year a retired worker waits to collect their payout, beginning at age 62 and continuing until age 70, their monthly check can grow by as much as 8%. Waiting a few years can meaningfully boost what you'll receive monthly from Social Security.
To add to this point, an extensive study from online financial planning company United Income, which extrapolated the claiming decisions of 20,000 retired workers, found that age 70 would have maximized lifetime benefits for 57% of claimants.
A second smart move future retirees can consider is leaning on SSA-521, officially known as "Request for Withdrawal of Application." SSA-521 would allow those whose financial situations have changed or who regret their early filing decision to undo their claim. If approved by the SSA, your payout would, once again, begin accruing at up to 8% annually until you collect your benefit.
However, this Social Security do-over clause has some limitations. For one, you'll need to pay back every cent you and your family have received from Social Security based on your earnings history. Additionally, this request can only be made up to 12 months after filing for your initial claim.
The third way to maximize your lifetime income from Social Security is to be mindful of the unique variables that matter to you. While it'd be great if there were a perfect blueprint that would tell us precisely when to collect benefits, this isn't possible without knowing our "departure date" ahead of time.
To maximize what you'll receive from America's top retirement program, you'll need to fully understand your financial needs, how taxation and marital status can impact your decision, and wrap your hands around how your personal health could affect your ability to collect a Social Security check long term. These unique variables might make an earlier or middle-ground claim a smarter decision for you with regard to maximizing lifetime Social Security income.
