Elizabeth Warren Has a Plan to Keep Social Security Solvent - And It Targets the Richest Americans

Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling for a major change to preserve Social Security benefits for seniors. She wants to change how the Social Security payroll tax works so that higher earners pay more into the program. Her proposed change comes as the program's trust fund faces approaching insolvency and Congress is increasingly pressured to reform and preserve the program.

Here's how Warren's change might work and how it might impact you, your payroll taxes, and your Social Security benefits.

Warren's public call to change the tax cap

In a September 22 post on X, Warren compared how workers earning different salaries pay into Social Security taxes.

"A teacher earning $60,000 pays Social Security on every dollar she earns," wrote Warren. "A worker earning $184,500 does too. But someone earning $10 million pays tax on just the first $184,500. That doesn't make sense. We can protect Social Security if everyone pays their fair share."

The Social Security payroll tax cap

Warren is referring to the Social Security payroll tax cap. In 2026, the law caps taxes on the first $184,500 an individual earns in a year. Any income beyond $184,500 isn't taxed for Social Security, meaning high earners pay taxes on just a portion of their income, while lower-income workers pay taxes on their entire income. In Warren's example, only the first two workers pay taxes on every dollar they earn.

The cap exists because Social Security was designed as a social insurance program in which the taxes an individual pays are tied to the benefits they earn. Higher earners pay more tax and, in turn, receive higher benefits based on their earnings when they collect those benefits. Lower earners pay less taxes and receive lower benefit amounts. If the tax cap were lifted or eliminated and higher earners paid more taxes but didn't receive a correlating boost in benefits, the link between taxes paid and benefits earned would be broken, fundamentally changing the program.

The cap on Social Security benefits

The payroll tax cap also corresponds with the cap on Social Security benefits. In 2026, someone who files for Social Security at full retirement age may receive a maximum of $4,152 in benefits per month. That maximum amount is only available to an individual whose earnings equaled or exceeded the maximum taxable income for at least 35 years. That maximum taxable income in 2026 is $184,500 – the tax cap.

If the cap were to be lifted and higher earners were taxed on more of their income, there's a question about whether the maximum Social Security benefits should also be increased to reflect the higher contribution made by some individuals.

The Social Security funding shortfall

The talk around removing or raising the tax cap is part of a greater conversation on how to address Social Security's funding shortfall. The Social Security Trustees' 2026 report projects that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund may become depleted by the fourth quarter of 2032. That's one quarter earlier than projected by the 2025 report.

The report projects that if the trust fund becomes depleted, the program's revenue may only be sufficient to pay 78% of scheduled benefits. Such a situation might result in an automatic benefits reduction.

Why legislators are proposing removing or raising the tax cap

Removing or raising the tax cap might help increase revenue for Social Security. According to the Roosevelt Institute, eliminating the tax cap might help cover about 67% of the solvency gap. The impact might be smaller if benefits were increased; the extra tax revenue would only cover about 48% of the gap in that situation.

Raising the tax cap to tax a maximum of 90% of an individual's earnings might have a greater impact, addressing about 28% of the gap if benefits aren't increased. If benefits are increased, the change would address about 22% of the gap.

Who might be affected by changes to the tax cap

The idea of changing the tax cap has gained support from advocacy groups like Social Security Works and the Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. Tyler Bond, a senior fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance, co-authored the Roosevelt Institute's research on how to fund Social Security and notes that changing the tax cap could impact few Americans.

According to Bond, about 6% of workers earn incomes above the tax cap each year, and just 20% of workers will ever earn above the cap at any point during their career.

The current plans for the payroll tax cap

There's been lots of discussion around changing the Social Security payroll tax cap, and Warren and Senator Bernie Moreno have proposed eliminating the cap entirely. However, Congress has yet to unite on a path to address Social Security's pending insolvency, and Warren's ideas remain a public statement, rather than an actual bill in Congress.

Bottom line

Though about six years remain until the trust fund's projected depletion, Congress is under pressure to identify and implement a solution. In addition to the idea of changing the tax cap, other potential solutions under discussion include raising the retirement age, increasing Social Security tax percentages, or combining multiple fixes.

Legislators are proposing ideas to fix Social Security without reducing benefits, but at this time, the program's future is uncertain, and a benefits reduction is possible. It might be a good idea to revisit your retirement plan and budget to see how you might navigate with reduced monthly benefits, just in case.

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