Social Security Retirement Benefits in the US: What's the Maximum You Can Actually Get at 62, 67, and 70?

The Reality for Most American Retirees

Over 52 million Americans currently rely on Social Security as a critical part of their retirement income. Yet most people have little idea what their actual benefit checks will look like. The numbers vary dramatically depending on when you decide to start collecting—and there’s a hard cap on what anyone can receive, regardless of how much they’ve earned.

The US Social Security system offers three major claiming windows: age 62 (earliest possible), age 67 (full retirement age for most workers born in 1960 or later), and age 70 (the maximum delayed benefit point). The difference in monthly payments across these three ages is staggering.

What Determines Your Benefit Amount?

Social Security doesn’t calculate your monthly check in a simple way. Instead, it looks back at your highest-earning 35 years of employment. The system first adjusts those historical earnings for inflation to express them in today’s dollars—a process called “indexing.”

Your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME) becomes the foundation for calculating your benefit. Here’s where the wage base limit comes in: Social Security only taxes income up to a certain threshold each year. In 2025, that threshold sits at $176,100. This ceiling is crucial because only income up to this wage base limit factors into your benefit calculation. If you’ve consistently earned above this limit for all 35 working years, you could potentially qualify for the maximum benefit.

To reach that maximum, you must have hit the wage base limit for the entire 35-year period. Historically, these limits have climbed steadily: they were $118,500 in 2016 and reached $176,100 by 2025—a clear sign that wage thresholds rise annually.

The Numbers: Maximum Monthly Benefits Across Three Ages

Here’s where timing becomes everything:

• At age 62: $2,831 per month
• At age 67: $4,043 per month
• At age 70: $5,108 per month

The increase between 62 and 70 reflects two different mechanisms. Claiming early reduces your monthly amount by 5/9 of 1% per month for up to 36 months, then by 5/12 of 1% for each additional month. For someone with a full retirement age of 67, claiming at 62 means a 30% permanent reduction in monthly payments.

On the flip side, delaying your claim past full retirement age builds “delayed retirement credits.” You gain 2/3 of 1% per month—or roughly 8% annually—for every year you postpone benefits until age 70.

How Many People Actually Receive the Maximum?

This is where reality hits hard. According to the Social Security Administration, only about 6% of workers earn over the wage base limit in any given year. That means 94% of the workforce will never qualify for the absolute maximum benefit.

Consider the context: the US median salary hovers around $62,000 annually. That’s only about 35% of the 2025 wage base limit. Even earning above average doesn’t guarantee you’ll hit that threshold in all 35 years. Missing it by even one dollar in just one of those years disqualifies you from the maximum benefit entirely.

Planning Beyond Social Security

Given how few people will ever collect maximum benefits, financial experts consistently recommend treating Social Security as supplemental income rather than your primary retirement income source.

Building other income streams—through retirement accounts, investment portfolios, or other assets—becomes essential. The gap between what most people earn and what the wage base limit requires means proactive financial planning throughout your working years makes a real difference in retirement security.

While Social Security provides a foundation, the math suggests that a diversified approach to retirement savings offers the peace of mind most Americans are actually seeking.