Income Inequality Is Negatively Impacting Social Security - 04/25/07

By Doug Cunningham

Center for Economic and Policy research economist Dean Baker says long-term challenges facing Social Security have been made worse by the upward distribution of income. The share of payroll that’s taxed for Social Security is dropping – from 90 percent in 1983 to just 83.2 percent now. That’s because more money is being paid to people above the $97,500 per year income cutoff for paying social security taxes.