Social Security

Social Security

• In 2002, 153.8 million workers had earnings taxable under the Social Security program. About 138.7 million had only wages, 8.94 million had only self-employment income, and 6.21 million had both.
• Social Security taxable earnings totaled $4.2 trillion, which includes earnings up to the taxable maximum of $84,900.
• Social Security taxes totaled about $526 billion.

Medicare

• In 2002, 157.5 million workers had earnings taxable under the Medicare program. About 141.7 million had only wages, 8.8 million had only self-employment income, and 7.0 million had both.
• Medicare taxable earnings totaled $5.1 trillion.
• Medicare taxes totaled about $149 billion.

This report presents 2002 earnings and employment data by state and county for persons covered under the Social Security and Medicare programs.

The data show, by sex, race, and age, the number of wage and salary workers and self-employed persons, the amount of their taxable earnings, and the amount they paid in Social Security and Medicare contributions. The information in this publication is a rich data source for researchers and policymakers who are interested in studying the primary revenue source for the Social Security (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) and the Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) programs. When coupled with the Social Security Administration publication OASDI Beneficiaries by State and County, these data are valuable for studying the impact of the Social Security program and are used for this purpose in academia, private industry, and state governments.

Greg Diez, Fred Galeas, Bill Kearns, Randall Miles, Carol Musil, and Shirley Piazza in the Division of Earnings Statistics and Analysis are the team that designed, compiled, programmed, validated, and reviewed the data for this publication. Rich Mason and Dana Sheild in the Office of Systems wrote the computer programs to produce the source data from SSA's programmatic data files. Emil Loomis designed the cover, Sherry Snyder edited the report, and Laurie Brown prepared the electronic versions for the Web.

Edward DeMarco
Associate Commissioner for Research, Evaluation, and Statistics
December 2004