{"id":292311,"date":"2026-10-16T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/?p=292311"},"modified":"2026-10-16T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:00:00","slug":"social-security-work-credit-1970-2027-taxable-maximum-192300","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/social-security-work-credit-1970-2027-taxable-maximum-192300\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Security raises the requirement to retire: each work credit will cost $1,970 in 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong>Social Security Administration (SSA)<\/strong> has updated one of the most important requirements to receive a retirement benefit. In 2027, workers will need to earn <strong>$1,970 to obtain one work credit<\/strong>, compared with $1,890 in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Work credits, also known as <strong>quarters of coverage<\/strong>, are the way the SSA measures whether a person has worked long enough to qualify for benefits. They are earned with the wages or self-employment income on which Social Security taxes are paid.<\/p>\n<h2>How many credits are needed to retire<\/h2>\n<p>Workers born in 1929 or later need <strong>40 credits<\/strong> to qualify for retirement benefits. Since a maximum of <strong>four credits<\/strong> can be earned per year, this usually means about <strong>10 years of work<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>One credit in 2027<\/strong> | $1,970 in covered earnings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Four credits in 2027 (the maximum)<\/strong> | $7,880 in covered earnings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Credits needed to retire<\/strong> | 40.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Credits are not tied to specific quarters. A person who earns $7,880 in January 2027 already has the four credits for the whole year. The credits earned are never lost, even if the person stops working for a long time.<\/p>\n<h2>The taxable maximum also rises<\/h2>\n<p>The SSA also raised the <strong>taxable maximum<\/strong>, the earnings limit on which the 6.2% Social Security tax is paid. It goes from $184,500 in 2026 to <strong>$192,300 in 2027<\/strong>. Income above that amount is not taxed for Social Security, though it is still taxed for Medicare. We explained how this limit works in our article about <a href=\"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/social-security-taxable-maximum-184500-2026-ceiling-explained\/\">the $184,500 ceiling of 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Having 40 credits is not the same as a high benefit<\/h2>\n<p>Reaching 40 credits only opens the door to a retirement benefit. The amount depends on the <strong>35 years of highest earnings<\/strong>, adjusted for wage growth, and on the age at which the person claims. Those who retire at 62 receive a permanently reduced check, as we explained in our article on <a href=\"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/retiring-at-62-2026-social-security-40-credits-maximum-2969\/\">retiring at 62 with 40 credits<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Disability benefits have different credit rules, which depend on the worker&#8217;s age when the disability begins. Retirees who are already collecting do not need to worry about credits: their benefit will simply rise with the <a href=\"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/social-security-cola-2027-3-6-percent-retirees-75-more\/\">3.6% COLA in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2027 workers need $1,970 in earnings for each Social Security credit and 40 credits to retire. The taxable maximum rises to $192,300.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":292312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,2],"class_list":["post-292311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-retirement","tag-social-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292313,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292311\/revisions\/292313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}