Working in the Golden Years and Paying for it: The Retirement Earnings Test

ENDNOTES

1. This and other population figures stated do not include those in the armed services or those who are institutionalized (in prisons, nurs-ing homes, mental institutions and the like).
2. The "official" retirement age will gradually rise from 65 to 67 between 2003 and 2027.
3. The earnings test affects only earned income, such as wages and salaries. It does not affect unearned income, such as dividends and pensions. This tax on earnings is separate from income taxes owed to the government. The term "tax" is used because the benefit reduction is basically an amount of money a person must pay the government.
4. See, for example, Leonesio (1990) and Packard (1990).

FOR FURTHER READING

Friedberg, Leora. "The Labor Supply Effects of the Social Security Earnings Test," NBER Working Paper 7200 (June 1999).

Leonesio, Michael V. "The Effects of the Social Security Earnings Test on the Labor-Market Activity of Older Americans: A Review of the Evidence," Social Security Bulletin (May 1990), pp. 2-21.

Packard, Michael D. "The Earnings Test and the Short-Run Work Response to its Elimination," Social Security Bulletin (September 1990), pp. 2-16.

Poole, William, and Howard J. Wall. "Price Stability and the Rising Tide," The Regional Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (January 2000), pp. 5-9.

Social Security Administration. "Social Security Facts and Figures," publication No. 05-10011 (April 1998).