The annual automatic increases in Social Security taxes and benefits are based on different formulas, both of them set by Congress.
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The nation’s 75 million Social Security recipients will receive a 2.8% cost of living adjustment (COLA) increase in their benefits in 2026, up slightly from this year’s 2.5% increase, reflecting the upward creep in inflation, the Social Security Administration announced today.
Meanwhile, the maximum amount of a worker’s earnings subject to Social Security tax (also known as the wage base) will increase by a heftier 4.8%, or $8,400 to $184,500, from $176,100 in 2025. That adjustment, which means higher taxes for about 6% of earners, is based on changes in the national average wage index, not the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which determines beneficiaries’ COLA. The Congressionally set Social Security tax rate itself is unchanged at 12.4% for 2026, with the worker and the employer each paying half and the self-employed paying the full 12.4% themselves. That means the maximum Social Security tax per worker will be rising by $1041.60 to $22,878 with $11,439 of that taken directly out of an employee’s paycheck, up from $10,918.20 this year.
The 2.8% Social Security benefits increase will raise the average monthly check for all retired workers by $56 to $2,071, while retired couples who are both receiving benefits will see an average $88 boost to $3,208 a month. Announcement of the annual COLA, which is based on the increase in the CPI-W from the third quarter of 2024 to the third quarter of 2025, was delayed because the government shutdown delayed the release of September’s CPI numbers until today. The Trump Administration called back some furloughed employees of the Bureau of Labor Statistics to manage the CPI release. (The BLS says it collected all the data before the shutdown.)
Automatic Social Security COLAs have been in place since 1975, when Congress decided to take itself—and the political pressures of the day—out of an annual adjustment affecting so many voters. But debate on the appropriate COLA continues, with the Senior Citizens League calling for it to be based on a special CPI for the elderly and a new white paper from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget suggesting that capping the COLA for higher income recipients would be a way to help shore up the shaky finances of the Social Security program.
Many Social Security beneficiaries could lose a big chunk of their 2026 benefits boost to a yet-to-be-announced increase in Medicare Part B premiums for 2026. Based on the 2025 Medicare Trustees report issued in June, the annual base premium for Medicare Part B, which covers doctors visits and other outpatient services, is predicted to rise 11.6%, taking it up $21.50 a month, to $206.50, per person. (Higher income beneficiaries pay far higher premiums, which this year range from $259 a month to a top $628.90 a month per person for individuals with adjusted gross income in excess of $500,000 and couples with income of more than $750,000. Those too will be adjusted for 2026.) It’s worth noting, however, that the 2026 increases in premiums for Medicare Part D, which covers prescription drugs, came in lower than expected, with premiums in a number of states dropping.
Current beneficiaries should get notices in the mail in early December with their new individual 2026 benefits amounts, but can get that information sooner by setting up an individual online account. The one-page individual notice should include information about not only the 2026 benefit amount, but also any deductions, including for Medicare premiums. The actual increase will show up in payments for regular Social Security beneficiaries in January, while those who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for low-income recipients will see it this December 31.
The maximum benefit for a high-income single worker claiming Social Security at “full” retirement age will be $4,152 a month in 2026, up $134 from a maximum of $4,018 for those reaching full retirement age in 2025. (This one isn’t based on CPI either.) But the actual maximum benefit goes up and down depending on the age at which a worker claims. For example, someone born in 1959 reaches their full retirement age at 66 years and 10 months, meaning most of them will hit it in 2026, while those born in January or February will reach it this November or December. But for each month they wait after the full retirement age to claim, their benefits increase slightly, with a maximum boost of 25.3% if they wait until 70. Conversely, they could have claimed Social Security as early as age 62, but that would have meant a 34.17% reduction in their monthly payment.
Those who claim before full retirement age face another potential penalty too—if they earn too much working, their benefits can be docked, with the actual amount they can earn before a benefits cut also adjusted each year. In 2026, most of those receiving Social Security early will lose $1 in benefits for every $2 in earnings above $24,480 a year or $2,040 a month, up from $23,400 a year or $1,950 a month in 2025. Those who reach their full retirement age in 2026 have a more generous earnings limit. They will be able to earn up to $65,160 ($5,430) a month in the period before they reach full retirement age and will only lose $1 in benefits for each $3 earned above the limit. In reality, the work penalty is not as onerous as it sounds, since Social Security recalculates your benefits when you reach full retirement age to account for any amounts you lost before that date because you claimed early, while continuing to work. After full retirement age, a Social Security recipient can earn an unlimited amount from employment without their benefits check being docked.
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