Do you want the maximum $5,108 Social Security benefit? Here is the salary you need.

The average Social Security retirement benefit was $1,921.56 in September. Although it may be a nice supplement to your retirement savings, it is hardly enough for most retirees to live on. This is especially true when you consider the rapidly increasing costs of health care and housing.

But if you earn enough during your career, you can receive a lot more from Social Security when you retire. The maximum possible benefit in 2025 will be $5,108 a month, and that amount will increase each year going forward thanks to the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, built into Social Security.

The biggest obstacle to receiving the maximum benefit is earning a high enough salary during your career. Only a small percentage of Americans will ever qualify for the maximum benefit. But if you want to become one of them, here is how much you need to earn.

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The three factors that determine the size of your Social Security check

Before we get to how much you need to earn to maximize your Social Security benefits, it’s important to understand how the government calculates your retirement check. There are three factors that play a role in the calculation:

• Your earnings history
• When you were born
• When you claim benefits

When you are eligible for Social Security benefits, the government will take a look at your past wages. It doesn’t just look at what you earned in your last year of employment; it goes back throughout your career. It adjusts each year’s earnings for wage inflation tied to an index from the year you turned 60. Any earnings after age 60 are not adjusted.

The Social Security Administration will take your 35 highest adjusted earnings years and find your average monthly earnings. It then plugs the average into the Social Security benefits formula (which is affected by when you were born) to determine your Primary Insurance Amount, or PIA. This is the amount you will receive if you apply for daily allowance in the month you reach full retirement age.

Your full retirement age is determined by the year you were born. Those born between 1943 and 1954 reached full retirement age at 66. Your full retirement age increases by two months for each year you were born after 1954 until it reaches age 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.

If you claim benefits before your full retirement age, you will see a reduction in benefits compared to your PIA. But if you wait past your full retirement age, you’ll get more from Social Security for every month you delay until age 70. Someone born in 1955 has a full retirement age of 66 and two months and they can collect almost 31% on top of their PIA by waiting until they are 70 to claim.

Here’s the salary you need to get the maximum benefit

Most people pay Social Security taxes on their entire paycheck over the course of their careers. But high earners may not pay tax on every penny they earn. This is because the Social Security Administration sets a ceiling on the taxable salary every year.

Any amount earned above this cap will not incur tax, but will also not count towards your earnings history. It actually sets the bar for the salary you must earn to qualify for the maximum potential retirement benefit. If you can consistently earn above this threshold for at least 35 years, you are in line for a very significant Social Security check.

The table below shows the maximum taxable income for each of the past 50 years.

Data source: Social Security Administration.

It is important to note that earnings limits are likely to continue to rise over time due to inflation and improvements in living standards. If your salary does not continue to rise in line with the taxable income limit, you will not be entitled to the maximum possible benefit in the future.

You can’t just earn a high salary and expect to get the maximum benefit

However, earning a high salary is just part of the equation. When you were born and when you claim also play key factors.

First of all, the maximum possible benefit is only available to pensioners who turn 70 in 2025. This is due to the small changes in the benefit formula that are affected by the year you were born.

On top of that, these retirees must wait until they turn 70 in 2025 before claiming benefits to get the maximum.

Perhaps the biggest factor that eliminates retirees from receiving the maximum benefit is that they had to work through 2024 and earned more than the maximum taxable income in most years since 1986. Because of the way the Social Security Administration does it , earnings in your 60s (and beyond) have a much greater impact on your final benefit amount for those earning above the maximum taxable income.

Given all these requirements, only a small handful of Social Security recipients will get checks in the mail each month for $5,108. And more than likely, if someone is in line for the biggest possible advantage, it means they’ve had a long and successful career that has lasted into their 60s. Someone in this situation probably has their own retirement savings, or they may not be planning to retire at all.

For everyone else, it’s worth pursuing a salary high enough to maximize your possible Social Security benefit when you decide to retire. But if you save and invest for your golden years along the way, you may not want to continue working well into your 60s. It may still be a good idea to wait to claim benefits until age 70, but ideally, you can enjoy your early retirement without worrying about getting every penny you can get from Social Security.