How big of a percentage of wages go towards Social Security?
Social Security Wage Base
In 2018, the Social Security Wage Base was $128,400 and the Social Security tax rate was 6.20% paid by the employee and 6.20% paid by the employer.[1] A person with $10,000 of gross income had $620.00 withheld as Social Security tax from his check and the employer sent an additional $620.00. A person with $130,000 of gross income in 2017 incurred Social Security tax of $7,886.40 (resulting in an effective rate of approximately 6.07% - the rate was lower because the income was more than the 2017 "wage base", see below), with $7,886.40 paid by the employer. A person who earned a million dollars in wages paid the same $7,886.40 in Social Security tax (resulting in an effective rate of approximately 0.79%), with equivalent employer matching. In the cases of the $130k and $1m earners, each paid the same amount into the social security system, and both will take the same out of the social security system.
Heidi Hartmann
Social Security provides many advantages as well as disadvantages for women, according to Hartmann's studies. In terms of advantages, it covers everyone (including women) that has worked at least ten years at a salary of $4,360 per year. It provides benefits to wives regardless of whether they have worked for pay or not, former wives (who had at least a ten-year marriage) and for widows. Social Security also is adaptive to inflation processes and does not discriminate against lower or higher earning women workers. Hartmann also makes note of disadvantages of the United States' current social security system that are particular to women. In 2013, Social Security cuts (known as Chained CPI) hurt women more than it helps them. Elderly women rely on Social Security for most of their income, because they have less access to other forms of income such as pensions and savings that men have more access too. Besides the recent cuts to benefits, years when women are caregiving are averaged as zeroes, which drag's down a woman's overall average income. Additionally, there are no benefits to caregiving outside of marriage, whereas the married caregiver can received spousal benefits from Social Security.