Strengthen Social Security and Build Additional Retirement Security
The goal is to protect regular Social Security for the long term, establish a minimum benefit floor, and give workers a voluntary way to build additional retirement income through Supplemental Social Security.
Protect Regular Social Security
Regular Social Security remains the foundation of retirement security. The proposal strengthens the program's financing rather than replacing it.
- Employees continue contributing 6.2% of wages, with no income cap on the employee contribution.
- Employers continue contributing 6.2% of wages, with the employer contribution capped at $500,000 in wages per employee.
- Earnings above the ordinary Social Security taxable maximum continue to receive additional benefit credit under a reduced 2% secondary benefit formula.
Minimum Benefit Floor
No one who has spent a working life contributing to Social Security should reach retirement with a benefit that cannot meet basic needs.
The proposal establishes a national minimum benefit floor and indexes it forward. The campaign has stress-tested different floor levels, including a $2,400 monthly national floor, to examine affordability and long-term solvency.
Supplemental Social Security (SSS)
Supplemental Social Security is a voluntary retirement program administered by the Social Security Administration. It is designed to supplement regular Social Security, not replace it.
- Employee participation is voluntary.
- If an employee chooses to participate, the employer participates as well.
- The employer contribution is a fixed 2% of wages.
- The employee contributes at least 2% and may voluntarily contribute up to 5% of wages.
- The account follows the worker and is not tied to a particular employer.
Invest the Money in America
SSS assets would be invested in qualifying state, municipal, and other government bonds. The purpose is to earn a conservative return while helping finance useful public investment.
Priority would go to essential infrastructure such as water and sewer systems, maintenance, repair, replacement, necessary upgrades, and affordable housing where local infrastructure can support it.
Investment Standards and Safeguards
The Social Security Administration would buy available qualifying bonds at reasonable market rates rather than chasing the highest possible yield.
- The planning assumption is an average gross bond yield of about 3.5%.
- A clawback or equivalent protection would apply if a bond obligation is not fulfilled or defaults.
- Affordability tests would help prevent the program from encouraging unsustainable municipal borrowing.
- Administrative-cost treatment must be transparent so workers can see the difference between gross investment yield and the net return credited to their account.
The 3.5% figure is an assumed average gross bond yield for modeling purposes, not a guaranteed net return to a participant.
Why Add SSS?
Regular Social Security was never intended to provide every dollar a person needs in retirement. Many workers do not have a pension and cannot consistently build large private retirement accounts.
SSS creates a simple public option for building additional retirement security while directing retirement savings into communities and infrastructure across the country.