As Millionaire Earners Stop Paying Into Social Security for the Rest of 2024, New Polling Shows Americans Want the Wealthy to Pay Their Fair Share

WASHINGTON - Today, Social Security Works and Data for Progress released new polling showing that voters overwhelmingly reject Social Security cuts, as well as the idea of a closed-door “fiscal commission” to determine Social Security’s future. Instead, they want Congress to raise taxes on wealthy Americans to protect Social Security.

Currently, Social Security contributions are capped at $168,600 and people do not contribute on their wage income above that amount (unearned investment income is also exempt from Social Security contributions). That means that people making $1,000,000 a year are about to stop paying into Social Security for the rest of 2024.

In an op-ed about the polling, Social Security Works President Nancy Altman and Representative John Larson (D-CT) wrote that:

“We need to provide the 70 million Americans who pay into the system and rely on these benefits with the security to know it is solvent and working for them — and they deserve a direct answer on how Congress is going to address it. For more than 40 percent of them, Social Security is the only retirement plan they have. That’s why — across party lines — Americans are so adamant about fixing, maintaining, and enhancing Social Security, not cutting their hard-earned benefits.”

Key results from the polling include:

• 92% of voters, including 94% of Republicans, reject cutting Social Security to reduce the national debt.
• 71% of voters want Congress to protect Social Security by increasing taxes on wealthy Americans.
• 70% of voters, including 71% of Republican voters, oppose the creation of a commission aimed at cutting Social Security, Medicare, and other programs.
• 70% of voters think the future of Social Security should be decided through the regular lawmaking process in Congress, not through a new closed-door commission.