Social Security Benefits: We’re Number 29

Social Security has become the Grand Contract, keeping millions of Americans out of poverty and providing a modicum of financial security for millions more. A report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, based on the March 2022 Current Population Survey, noted that “Without Social Security, 21.7 million more adults and children would be below the poverty line.” Social Security benefits are especially important for older women and persons of color. Women “tend to earn less than men, take more time out of the paid workforce, live longer, accumulate less savings, and receive smaller pensions.” Social Security brings 8.8 million older women above the poverty line, 1.7 million African Americans, and 1.3 million Latinos. Without Social Security benefits, older women would have a poverty rate of 40.5 percent; with Social Security, that rate drops to 11.6 percent. Similarly, the poverty rate for African Americans would be 50.2 percent without Social Security but is 17.5 percent when it is included. Elderly Latinos would have a poverty rate of 44.5 percent without Social Security, but with it, the poverty rate drops to 18.7 percent. In addition, more than 8 million children are lifted above the poverty line. The average Social Security recipient receives about $21,384 per year, or $1,782 per month. This sum hardly puts a recipient on Easy Street.

Social insurance programs have a long history in Europe, with the first adopted by Germany in 1889. By the time that the United States created the Social Security Act in 1935, thirty-four nations were already operating some form of social insurance programs. Today, there are a wide variety of social security programs worldwide, some similar to those found in the United States (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability), some with cash sickness benefits, cash maternity benefits, worker injury, unemployment benefits, or family allowances. When comparing the American programs, as vital, expensive, and necessary as they are, to programs in other countries, they fall quite short. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted, “Social Security benefits are . . . modest by international standards.”

Sources: Kathleen Romig, “Social Security Lifts More People Above the Poverty Line Than Any Other Program,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, June 2, 2023, https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/social-security-lifts-more-people-above-the-poverty-line-than-any-other; “Historical Background and Development of Social Security,” Social Security Administration, https://www.ssa.gov/history/briefhistory3.html; “Social Security Programs Throughout the World: Europe 2018,” Social Security Administration, September 2018, https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/progdesc/ssptw/2018-2019/europe/ssptw18europe.pdf; “Policy Basics: Top Ten Facts About Social Security,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, April 17, 2023, https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/top-ten-facts-about-social-security; “Pensions at a Glance, 2021: Retirement Systems in OECD Countries.