For 2026, the payroll tax cap, or taxable maximum, is $184,500. Workers and their employers each pay 6.2 percent on wages up to that amount. (Self-employed individuals pay 12.4 percent.) Today, the maximum Social Security withholding for one worker is $22,878, or 12.4 percent of $184,500. Not a penny more, even if an individual’s salary far exceeds $184,500. Since the vast majority of Americans make less than that, most people are paying Social Security taxes on 100 percent of their earnings while the highest earners are paying on only part of theirs. Why should a middle-class nurse pay a larger share of her paycheck than a wealthy corporate lawyer? This is doubly unfair in an economy in which top earners’ wages, over time, have pulled far ahead of those of the average worker.

 

Bernie Moreno and Elizabeth Warren: Our Plan to Save Social Security

By Bernie Moreno and Elizabeth Warren

Mr. Moreno, a Republican, is the senior U.S. senator from Ohio. Ms. Warren, a Democrat, is the senior U.S. senator from Massachusetts.