Social Security

Lifetime Low Earners in 2050

DEFINITION: We are defining a lifetime low earner as a Social Security beneficiary aged 60 or older who has at least 30 years of work with each year's earnings at or above four times the amount needed for one Social Security quarterly credit and less than half of the national average wage index.

In 2050, we project that:

• Almost 3 percent of beneficiaries aged 60 or older will be lifetime low earners.
• More lifetime low earners will be women and have a high-school education or less compared with all beneficiaries aged 60 or older.
• Fewer lifetime low earners will be disabled compared with all beneficiaries aged 60 or older.
• More than half of lifetime low earners will be in the lowest paying average indexed monthly earnings (AIME) quintile. ^a
• Over 5 percent of lifetime low earners will have household incomes below 100 percent of poverty.

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Table equivalent for chart: Population Characteristics

Characteristic	Lifetime low earners	Beneficiaries aged 60 or older
Number of beneficiaries	2.4 million	83.6 million
Women	75%	53%
High school education or less	64%	41%
Race/ethnicity
White	62%	63%
Black	13%	10%
All other races	4%	8%
Hispanic origin	21%	19%
Disabled	8%	12%

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Table equivalent for chart: Paying AIME Quintile

Paying AIME quintile	Percentage of beneficiaries in quintile
Lowest	56
Second lowest	19
Middle	8
Second highest	10
Highest	7

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Table equivalent for chart: Poverty Rates: Percentage below 100 percent of poverty

Under—	Lifetime low earners	Beneficiaries aged 60 or older
Scheduled benefits	5.6	4.0
Payable benefits	13.4	6.8