Average Monthly Earnings
What Does Average Monthly Earnings Mean?
Average monthly earnings is a statistic used by the Social Security Administration to calculate an individual’s Social Security benefits. To arrive at this number, the Social Security Administration uses the top-earning 35 years of a person’s career after age 21 to calculate a monthly average for their earnings.
Insuranceopedia Explains Average Monthly Earnings
Social Security is essentially insurance that protects retirees from poverty. However, even though it is designed to help retirees earn a stable monthly income once they become eligible, the amount they receive is dependent on the amount they put in. Therefore, the higher a person’s average monthly earnings, the more they would receive in Social Security benefits upon retiring. There is a maximum amount however, which is set at $2,663 per month as of 2015.
