•Press Release Health and Social Programs United States
Washington DC — In a new analysis of the Social Security Trustees Report, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) concludes that Social Security benefits are fully funded through 2034.
In the analysis by CEPR Program Associate Sarah Rawlins, the program does have a projected shortfall equal to 3.21 percent of taxable payroll over the next 75 years. But the outdated Social Security payroll tax cap, set in 1983, only taxes the first $137,700 of wage income per year (in 2020), letting higher-income wage earners pay less than the 6.2 percent effective tax rate most US wage earners pay. Thus, the shortfall is easily fixable and is not an indicator of the function of the program itself.
