Population Fact Sheets
Taxable Maximum Earners
Released: April 2012Next expected update: Spring 2014
- Since the late 1980s, each year roughly 6 percent of covered workers have earned over the taxable maximum.
- A larger percentage of workers earn over the taxable maximum at some point during their working careers because some workers exceed the threshold in some years, but not in others.
- Nearly half of workers projected to ever earn over the taxable maximum are in the top 20 percent of lifetime earners.
Covered Workers with Earnings Over the Taxable Maximum in a Given Year
SOURCE: Social Security Administration, Annual Statistical Supplement 2011, Table 4.B1.
Covered Workers Projected to Ever Earn Over the Taxable Maximum
SOURCE: Modeling Income in the Near Term, Version 6 (MINT6) microsimulation model.
Distribution of the Population Aged 60 or Older Ever Earning Over the Taxable Maximum, 2050
Percentage by lifetime shared earnings
NOTES: Lifetime shared earnings are the wage-indexed value of shared lifetime total earnings. Shared earnings are the same as individual earnings except that the earnings for married couples are "shared," that is the sum of the married couple's earnings are divided in half and each half is attributed to one of the spouses.
SOURCE: Modeling Income in the Near Term, Version 6 (MINT6) microsimulation model.