Contribution and Benefit Base

Social Security's Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program limits the amount of earnings subject to taxation for a given year. The same annual limit also applies when those earnings are used in a benefit computation. This limit increases each year with increases in the national average wage index. We call this annual limit the contribution and benefit base. For earnings in 2008, this base is $102,000.

The OASDI tax rate for wages paid in 2008 is set by statute at 6.2 percent for employees and employers, each. Thus, an individual with wages equal to or larger than $102,000 would contribute $6,324.00 to the OASDI program in 2008, and his or her employer would contribute the same amount. The OASDI tax rate for self-employment income in 2008 is 12.4 percent. (Tax rates of 1.45 percent for employees and employers, each, and 2.90 percent for self-employed persons, are applied to all earnings—without a taxable maximum—under Medicare's Hospital Insurance program.)

Contribution and benefit bases, 1937-2008

Year	Amount
1937-50	$3,000
1951-54	3,600
1955-58	4,200
1959-65	4,800
1966-67	6,600
1968-71	7,800
1972	9,000
1973	10,800
1974	13,200
1975	14,100
1976	15,300
1977	16,500
1978	17,700
1979	22,900
1980	25,900

Year	Amount
1981	$29,700
1982	32,400
1983	35,700
1984	37,800
1985	39,600
1986	42,000
1987	43,800
1988	45,000
1989	48,000
1990	51,300
1991	53,400
1992	55,500
1993	57,600
1994	60,600
1995	61,200

Year	Amount
1996	$62,700
1997	65,400
1998	68,400
1999	72,600
2000	76,200
2001	80,400
2002	84,900
2003	87,000
2004	87,900
2005	90,000
2006	94,200
2007	97,500
2008	102,000

Note: Amounts for 1937-74 and for 1979-81 were set by statute; all other amounts were determined under automatic adjustment provisions of the Social Security Act.


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