If you've ever wondered how much you earned the year you worked your first job, you can find out by creating your own personal, mySocialSecurity account. 

Jack Myers with Social Security says it's also a good reminder to make sure your earnings are being reported accurately. The Social Security benefits you will one day receive will be based on your earnings through the years and the Social Security taxes you’ve paid on those earnings and it is your employer’s responsibility to report those earnings to Social Security, but if they don’t or they make an error in their report, you won’t get credit for your earnings.

While it can be fun to look back historically at your early years of work and see how much (or how little) you actually earned, you should know that when Social Security computes a retirement benefit, they adjust your earnings record for inflation, then select the 35 highest years to base your benefits on. Myers emphasizes if you have fewer than 35 years of earnings, that will reduce your retirement benefit. Therefore if your earnings are under or unreported for a year or years, it could make a difference.  

If you spot a problem it is easy to fix if you still have your W-2 or tax return and proof if self-employment tax paid. According to Myers, the issue is if you wait too long to check and don’t spot the problem until many years down the road.  If you don’t have the tax documents anymore, it won’t be as easy to fix. When looking at your account, you should be comparing the Social Security earnings column with the Social Security wages box on your W-2.

Social Security processes employer wage reports separately so if you work for multiple employers it is likely that one report will be posted to your record before the other.  Check back later to ensure the one shows up. Myers notes this doesn’t apply to many people, but there is a maximum for Social Security.  

In 2022 if you earned more than $147,000 you stop paying Social Security taxes.  If you worked for multiple employers, you may see figures higher than that in your Social Security wage boxes.  

Your online account should only show the $147,000 and any additional Social Security taxes should have been refunded when you filed your tax return for 2022. If you only had one employer, your W-2 should reflect the max in the Social Security box. 

If you want to read more about correcting an earnings record, check out the publications section of ssa.gov and look for one called 'How to Correct Your Social Security Earnings Record'.