I just wanted to know why my mother who worked for 45 years at a lower wage than I is getting $1261.00 per month, And me who worked as a Masters Degree professional at a much higher wage/ salary for the same time are to recieve only $2000.00 at age sixty five?

Hi,

Social Security is a social insurance program, not an individual retirement account. Social Security retirement benefit rates are calculated based on the highest 35 years of a person's wage-adjusted earnings. The calculation formula has 'bend points' that are designed to provide people who had relatively low annual earnings levels with benefit rates that are higher as a percentage of their average annual earnings than the percentage paid to workers with higher average earnings. The principle on which the formula is based is that workers on the lower end of the earnings spectrum will require a benefit rate closer to the full level of their pre-retirement earnings in order to meet their necessary living expenses after they are no longer able to work.

For more detailed information regarding the benefit calculation formula, refer to this Social Security pamphlet: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf.

Best, Jerry