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Your Social Security earnings record tracks how much you earned during your working years and plays an important role in determining future benefits. Checking the record regularly can help you catch missing or incorrect earnings before they affect your retirement or disability payments.
What is the Social Security earnings record?
The Social Security Administration keeps a chronological record of the money you earned each year during your working lifetime. Your earnings remain on your Social Security record even if you change jobs or have periods when you do not work.
The information matters because Social Security uses your earnings history to calculate retirement and disability benefits. Your earnings record also helps determine the benefits you and your family may be entitled to receive.
For retirement benefits, the SSA generally calculates average indexed monthly earnings using your highest 35 years of earnings. This means that the amounts recorded on your work history can directly affect your future monthly benefit.
How to check your Social Security work history
The easiest way to review your earnings record is through your personal My Social Security account. Once signed in, you can access your Social Security Statement and review your earnings history online.
The SSA recommends checking your record carefully and comparing the information with your own documents, such as W-2 forms and tax returns. The agency’s current guidance specifically recommends checking the record in August to make sure the previous year’s earnings were reported correctly.
Workers should pay particular attention to missing years or amounts that do not match their records. Earnings from the current year and the previous year may not yet appear in the record, according to the SSA.
What happens if your earnings record is wrong?
An error or missing year can affect the amount of Social Security benefits you eventually receive. The SSA warns that if an employer fails to properly report even one year of earnings, your future benefit payments could be lower than they should be.
If you find incorrect earnings, you can ask Social Security to correct the record. In some cases, people can request a correction online through their my Social Security account by selecting the option to review their full earnings record and request a correction.
The SSA says it is generally not possible to correct earnings after three years, three months and 15 days from the end of the taxable year in which the wages were paid, although exceptions apply. Supporting documents such as W-2 forms and pay stubs can be useful when requesting a correction.