Average Monthly Earnings
Updated: 19 January 2025
What Does Average Monthly Earnings Mean?
Average Monthly Earnings is a statistic used by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to calculate an individual’s Social Security benefits. To determine this figure, the SSA considers the top-earning 35 years of a person’s career after age 21 and calculates a monthly average of their earnings.
Insuranceopedia Explains Average Monthly Earnings
Social Security is essentially insurance designed to protect retirees from poverty. While it helps retirees earn a stable monthly income once they become eligible, the amount they receive depends on their lifetime earnings. Therefore, the higher a person’s average monthly earnings, the more they will receive in Social Security benefits upon retirement. However, there is a maximum benefit limit, which was set at $2,663 per month as of 2015.
