You can keep working while collecting spousal benefits at any age, but if you haven’t reached full retirement age, the Social Security Administration will temporarily hold back part of your payment once your wages cross an annual threshold. In 2026, that threshold is $24,480 if you’re under full retirement age all year, or $65,160 if you reach full retirement age during the year.1Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working Once you hit full retirement age, the limit disappears and you keep every dollar of both your paycheck and your benefit.
The 2026 Earnings Test
Two different limits apply before full retirement age, and the one that applies to you depends on when your birthday falls.
- If you’re under full retirement age for all of 2026, the limit is $24,480. For every $2 you earn above that, Social Security withholds $1 in benefits.1Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
- If you’ll reach full retirement age during 2026, the limit rises to $65,160, and only earnings in the months before your birthday month count. In that window, Social Security withholds $1 for every $3 above the limit.2Social Security Administration. Determination of Exempt Amounts
Both figures adjust each year with national wage trends.3Social Security Administration. Exempt Amounts Under the Earnings Test
What Counts, and What Doesn’t
Only earned income triggers the test: wages from a job or net profit from self-employment. Pensions, interest, annuities, capital gains, and other investment returns are ignored.3Social Security Administration. Exempt Amounts Under the Earnings Test Someone bringing in $20,000 from a part-time job and $30,000 from a pension only has $20,000 counted against the limit.
How the Reduction Works in Practice
Say you’re 63, collecting $9,600 a year in spousal benefits, and you earn $33,400 from work in 2026. That’s $8,920 over the $24,480 limit. Social Security would withhold half of that excess, or $4,460, leaving you with $5,140 in spousal benefits for the year.1Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working The agency doesn’t spread the reduction thinly across every check. It withholds your earliest monthly payments in full until the total reduction has been satisfied, then resumes normal payments for the rest of the year.
Retiring Partway Through the Year
If you leave your job midyear, you may already have earned well past the annual limit by the time your spousal benefit starts. A special first-year rule handles this. During the first year you collect benefits, Social Security can apply a monthly test instead of the annual one. You receive your full benefit for any month in which you earn $2,040 or less and don’t perform substantial work in self-employment, no matter how much you earned earlier in the year.1Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
This is a one-time accommodation. After that first year, the annual test governs.
Once You Reach Full Retirement Age
The earnings test ends the month you reach full retirement age. From that point on, you can earn any amount without any reduction to your spousal benefit.4eCFR. 20 CFR 404.409 – What Is Full Retirement Age
The money withheld in earlier years is not lost. When you reach full retirement age, Social Security recalculates your benefit to give you credit for the months payments were reduced or held back because of your earnings.5Social Security Administration. Program Explainer – Retirement Earnings Test The result is a higher monthly payment going forward, permanently. No paperwork is required; the adjustment happens automatically.
Claiming Early Is a Separate Reduction
Don’t confuse the earnings test with the reduction for filing early. If you claim spousal benefits before your full retirement age, your monthly amount is permanently reduced regardless of whether you’re working. At full retirement age (67 for anyone born in 1960 or later), the spousal benefit equals 50 percent of the worker’s full benefit.6Social Security Administration. Born in 1960 or Later Claim at 62 and it drops to as little as 32.5 percent.7Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses
The exact math: roughly 25/36 of one percent for each of the first 36 months you claim before full retirement age, plus 5/12 of one percent for each additional month beyond that.7Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses Unlike the earnings test, this reduction does not reverse when you reach full retirement age. Your monthly amount stays lower for life.
Working Can Also Make Your Benefit Taxable
Even when your paycheck doesn’t trigger the earnings test, it can pull more of your spousal benefit into taxable territory. The IRS uses “combined income,” which is your adjusted gross income plus any nontaxable interest plus half of your Social Security benefits, to decide how much of your benefit is taxable.
- Single filers with combined income between $25,000 and $34,000 may see up to 50 percent of their benefit taxed. Above $34,000, up to 85 percent may be taxable.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 86 – Social Security and Tier 1 Railroad Retirement Benefits
- Joint filers hit the 50 percent threshold at $32,000 in combined income and the 85 percent threshold above $44,000.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 86 – Social Security and Tier 1 Railroad Retirement Benefits
These figures have not been adjusted for inflation since they were set in 1983 and 1993, so a modest part-time salary can be enough to push a joint filer past $44,000 and expose up to 85 percent of their spousal benefit to tax.
For tax years 2025 through 2028, a temporary additional standard deduction of up to $4,000 is available for taxpayers age 65 and older. The deduction phases out at higher income levels, but for lower-earning working retirees it may offset some of the tax impact.
Medicare Premium Surcharges
A year of higher earnings can also raise your Medicare Part B premium through the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount. In 2026, single filers with modified adjusted gross income above $109,000, or joint filers above $218,000, pay a surcharge on top of the standard premium.9CMS. 2026 Medicare Parts A and B Premiums and Deductibles The surcharge is based on your tax return from two years earlier, so heavy earnings in 2026 would affect your 2028 premiums.
If You’re Self-Employed
Self-employed workers face the same dollar limits as employees, but Social Security also uses a “substantial services” test to judge whether you’re actually retired in a given month. The hour-based benchmarks:
- Fewer than 15 hours per month is not substantial.10Social Security Administration. 404.447 – Evaluation of Factors Involved in Substantial Services Test
- Between 15 and 45 hours is generally not substantial, though the agency may weigh the nature of the work and the size of the business.10Social Security Administration. 404.447 – Evaluation of Factors Involved in Substantial Services Test
- More than 45 hours is presumed substantial unless you can show you were reasonably retired.10Social Security Administration. 404.447 – Evaluation of Factors Involved in Substantial Services Test
The agency also looks at how your current work compares to what you did before retiring, whether you’ve hired someone to run daily operations, and how much capital sits in the business. Skilled or managerial work can be treated as substantial even at lower hour counts. This test matters most during the first year of retirement, when the monthly rule is in play.