Social Security retirement benefits are something that millions of Americans look forward to during their careers. Sure, most people pay Social Security taxes for decades to fund their eventual payment, but there’s something a little comforting about knowing you have a financial safety net in retirement.

Given the importance of social security for many people retirement financesit makes sense that you try to receive as many as possible. In 2025, the maximum monthly benefit anyone can receive is $5,108, an increase from the 2024 maximum benefit of $4,873.

If your goal is to reach this milestone, read on to see how much you’ll need to earn in 2025 to qualify.

Image source: Getty Images.

The salary base ceiling is the magic number to know

Social security calculates your monthly benefits using a formula involving your average income over the 35 years you earned the most. However, not all income is taken into account in the calculations.

Only income up to a certain amount, called the “salary base ceiling”, is taken into account. Earnings above the base salary limit are not subject to Social Security taxes each year and therefore are not taken into account when calculating your benefits.

In 2025, the salary base ceiling is $176,100. This means that a person earning $176,101, $1 million, and $10 million in 2025 will all pay the same amount in Social Security payroll taxes.

To earn the maximum monthly benefit of $5,108, you must earn at least the basic salary limit in each of the 35 years used to calculate your benefit. Earning less than the salary base limit in any of those 35 years would automatically prevent you from earning the maximum possible benefit.

Previous salary base limits and their importance

Below are the last 10 salary base limits. If these years are to be used in calculating your benefits, you must have earned at least these amounts during each of these years:

Data source: Social Security Administration.

Like Social Security cost of living adjustment (COLA), the salary base limit changes each year. The difference is that the annual COLA is based on IPC-W datawhile the wage base limit is based on changes to the National Average Wage Index (NAWI).

The percentage increase in the INAW is the percentage increase in the salary base limit. If there is no increase or decrease in NAWI, the salary base limit remains the same (as from 2015 to 2016).

It’s important to know the base salary cap for the year if you plan to receive the maximum benefit, because an increase in the cap could put you under the threshold, even if you exceeded it the previous year. Let’s take the example of someone who earns $175,000, who was over the 2024 limit but is now under the 2025 limit.

The other half of the equation

The second, equally important part of getting the maximum monthly benefit is delay applying for benefits until you reach 70 years old. At age 70, your monthly benefits stop increasing due to further delays, so it is generally considered the latest date by which you should apply for benefits. Until then, your monthly benefits increase by 2/3 of 1% for each month beyond your full retirement age. Here are the full retirement ages by year of birth:

Image source: The Motley Fool.

To be eligible for the maximum monthly Social Security benefit of $5,108, you must earn a salary above the wage base limit for at least 35 years. And delay your benefits until age 70. Doing one without the other would automatically make you ineligible for the maximum benefit.

Most people will not be eligible for the maximum payment given the income threshold. However, if you have had high income throughout your career, patience in delaying benefits is the only thing holding you back.