| How your retirement benefit is figured |
| A | B | C | D | | 1) Enter actual earnings in B, but not |
| Maximum | Actual | Index | Indexed | | more than shown in column A |
| Year | Earnings | Earnings | Factor | Earnings |
| 1951 | 3600 | 3600 | 9.26 | 33336 | | 2) Multiply colum B x C = column D |
| 1952 | 3600 | 3600 | 8.72 | 31392 |
| 1953 | 3600 | 3600 | 8.25 | 29700 | | 3) Chose 35 rows with highest |
| 1954 | 3600 | 3600 | 8.21 | 29556 | | indexed earnings (D) and sum |
| 1955 | 4200 | 4200 | 7.85 | 32970 |
| 1956 | 4200 | 4200 | 7.34 | 30828 | | 4) Divide this sum by 420 (number |
| 1957 | 4200 | 4200 | 7.12 | 29904 | | of months in 35 years) |
| 1958 | 4200 | 4200 | 7.05 | 29610 |
| 1959 | 4800 | 4800 | 6.72 | 32256 | | 5) a. Multiply first $477 by .9 |
| 1960 | 4800 | 4800 | 6.47 | 31056 | | b.Multiply amount over $477 and |
| 1961 | 4800 | 4800 | 6.34 | 30432 | | under $2875 by 32% |
| 1962 | 4800 | 4800 | 6.04 | 28992 | | c. Multiply any amount over $2875 by 15% |
| 1963 | 4800 | 4800 | 5.89 | 28272 |
| 1964 | 4800 | 4800 | 5.66 | 27168 | | 6) Sum 5a, 5b and 5c. Benefit amount at 65. |
| 1965 | 4800 | 4800 | 5.56 | 26688 |
| 1966 | 6600 | 6600 | 5.25 | 34650 | | 7) Multiply step 6 by .8. benefit amount at 62 |
| 1967 | 6600 | 6600 | 4.97 | 32802 |
| 1968 | 7800 | 7800 | 4.65 | 36270 |
| 1969 | 7800 | 7800 | 4.4 | 34320 | | Source: SSA Pub. No. 05-10070, March 1998 |
| 1970 | 7800 | 7800 | 4.19 | 32682 | | http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10070.html |
| 1971 | 7800 | 7800 | 3.99 | 31122 |
| 1972 | 9000 | 9000 | 3.63 | 32670 |
| 1973 | 10800 | 10800 | 3.42 | 36936 |
| 1974 | 13200 | 13200 | 3.23 | 42636 |
| 1975 | 14100 | 14100 | 3 | 42300 |
| 1976 | 15300 | 15300 | 2.81 | 42993 |
| 1977 | 16500 | 16500 | 2.65 | 43725 |
| 1978 | 17700 | 17700 | 2.45 | 43365 |
| 1979 | 22900 | 22900 | 2.26 | 51754 |
| 1980 | 25900 | 25900 | 2.07 | 53613 |
| 1981 | 29700 | 29700 | 1.88 | 55836 |
| 1982 | 32400 | 32400 | 1.78 | 57672 |
| 1983 | 35700 | 35700 | 1.7 | 60690 |
| 1984 | 37800 | 37800 | 1.61 | 60858 |
| 1985 | 39600 | 39600 | 1.54 | 60984 |
| 1986 | 42000 | 42000 | 1.5 | 63000 |
| 1987 | 43800 | 43800 | 1.41 | 61758 |
| 1988 | 45000 | 45000 | 1.34 | 60300 |
| 1989 | 48000 | 48000 | 1.29 | 61920 |
| 1990 | 51300 | 51300 | 1.23 | 63099 |
| 1991 | 53400 | 53400 | 1.19 | 63546 |
| 1992 | 55500 | 55500 | 1.13 | 62715 |
| 1993 | 57600 | 57600 | 1.12 | 64512 |
| 1994 | 60600 | 60600 | 1.09 | 66054 | | | Monthly retirement benefit |
| 1995 | 61200 | 61200 | 1.05 | 64260 | | | if retire at 65 |
| 1996 | 62700 | 62700 | 1 | 62700 | | | | | if retire at 62 |
| 1997 | 65400 | 65400 | 1 | 65400 |
| 1998 |
| | | | 1729270 | | 420 | 4117.30952380952 | $1,454.56 | 1163.64514285714 |
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| | | | Step3 | | | Step 4 | Step 5, 6 | Step 7 |