Want To Make Nearly $5,000 a Month on Social Security in 2024 and Beyond? Here’s What It Takes
Written by
Vance Cariaga
Edited by
Daria Uhlig
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The average Social Security retirement benefit will be about $1,855 a month in 2024 — and that’s after this year’s 3.2% cost-of-living adjustment. That adds up to about $22,260 a year, or way less than half of what the average American worker takes home. But some Social Security beneficiaries will get nearly $5,000 a month in 2024, which puts them right in the same income bracket as the average worker.
The maximum payout for Social Security recipients in 2024 is $4,873 a month, according to the Social Security Administration. That’s up from $4,555 in 2023 and $4,194 in 2022.
To put the 2024 maximum in context, consider that the average retirement benefit as of November 2023 was $1,797.23 a month, according to the SSA. When you add the 3.2% COLA, that figure will rise to $1,907, which represents less than 40% of the maximum benefit.
If you want to earn the maximum benefit, be prepared to spend decades earning a high salary and put off collecting benefits as long as possible. To qualify, you must have equaled or exceeded Social Security’s maximum taxable income for at least 35 years of your working life. The maximum taxable income is the amount of wages on which you pay Social Security taxes, which are deducted from your earnings.
In 2024, the maximum taxable income is $168,600 a year, up from $160,200 in 2023. Any earnings above that are not subject to Social Security taxes. The figure is adjusted every year based on shifts in national wage levels.
Here’s a look at how the maximum taxable income has changed this decade alone:
- 2020: $137,700
- 2021: $142,800
- 2022: $147,000
- 2023: $160,200
- 2024: $168,600
To earn the highest possible Social Security check in retirement, the first thing you need to do is commit to working full-time for at least 35 full years. Working more than 35 years won’t necessarily help, but working less than 35 years means you probably won’t earn the maximum.
Beyond that, you need to earn a much higher-than-average salary to qualify for the maximum benefit. Median earnings for full-time workers during the 2023 third quarter were $1,118 a week or $58,136 a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. You would need to nearly triple that salary to reach Social Security’s 2024 maximum taxable income of $168,600 a year.
That kind of sustained earning power is out of reach for the vast majority of Americans, according to Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan seniors advocacy group.
“The only way to get it is if you’re [Apple CEO] Tim Cook and you have been paying the maximum [into your payroll taxes],” Johnson joked in an interview with CBS News. “It’s like the 1% to 2%.”
To earn the maximum benefit, you also must wait until age 70 to claim Social Security. That’s a lot longer than most others wait. As of 2021, the average age that people started collecting benefits was 65.1 years.
Waiting until 70 can make a big difference in your monthly check. Here’s a look at the maximum monthly benefit for different claiming ages in 2024:
- Age 62: $2,710
- Full retirement age: $3,822
- Age 70: $4,873
One thing to keep in mind is that the maximum Social Security benefit is not the same as the maximum family benefit. The maximum family benefit is the most a family can collectively receive from Social Security on a single family member’s earnings record — including retirement, spousal, children‘s, disability or survivor benefits.
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