How to Calculate AIME for Social Security Benefits

To calculate your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings for Social Security benefits, add up your 35 highest years of earnings after adjusting each year for national wage growth, then divide the total by 420 months. That single number, your AIME, is what the Social Security Administration feeds into its benefit formula, so the math behind it is worth walking through step by step.

Pull Your Earnings History

Start with a year-by-year record of the wages you paid Social Security taxes on. The easiest source is a free “my Social Security” account on the SSA website, which lists your reported earnings for every year you’ve worked.¹ A paper Social Security Statement (Form SSA-7005) is available on request.

One detail matters before you write the numbers down. Only earnings up to the annual taxable maximum count. For 2026 that cap is $184,500, so if you earned $200,000 that year, only $184,500 goes into your calculation.² The cap moves with national wage growth each year; it was $168,600 in 2024 and $176,100 in 2025.³

If you’re self-employed, the figure on your statement is your net self-employment income adjusted by an SSA formula that accounts for paying both halves of the Social Security tax, so it may not match the number on your tax return.

You’ll also need the SSA’s National Average Wage Index (AWI) values, published back to 1951. Those are used in the next step to bring older earnings up to current wage levels.⁴

Index Each Year to Current Wage Levels

A dollar earned in 1985 represented far more purchasing power against average wages than a dollar today. Wage indexing adjusts each year’s earnings so early-career income is expressed in terms of today’s wage levels.⁵

For every year before your indexing year, multiply your taxed earnings by:

AWI for the indexing year ÷ AWI for the year you earned the income

Your indexing year is always two years before you first become eligible for benefits. For retirement, eligibility starts at age 62, so your indexing year is the year you turn 60.⁴ Someone born in 1964 turns 62 in 2026, so their earnings are indexed to the 2024 AWI of $69,846.57.

A worked example. Suppose you earned $5,000 in 1970 and your indexing year is 2024. The 1970 AWI was $6,186.24. Your indexed earnings for 1970 would be $5,000 × ($69,846.57 ÷ $6,186.24), or roughly $56,450.⁴ The adjustment captures the fact that $5,000 in 1970 was a meaningful income relative to what other workers earned then.

Earnings from the year you turn 60 and later are not indexed. They enter the calculation at face value, so $100,000 earned at age 61 counts as exactly $100,000 with no multiplier.⁵

Pick Your 35 Highest-Earning Years

Once every year is indexed, choose the 35 with the highest values. The number 35 comes from a statutory rule. The SSA counts the calendar years between the year you turned 22 (or 1951, whichever is later) and the year you turn 62. That total is your “elapsed years.” For retirement, five “dropout years” are subtracted so your lowest years don’t drag down the average.⁶

For someone born in 1964 who turns 62 in 2026, elapsed years run from 1986 through 2025, or 40 years. Subtract five dropout years and you get 35 computation years, which is why 35 is the standard number for virtually all current retirees.

The 35 years don’t need to be consecutive. You take the 35 highest indexed years no matter where they fall in your career, so low-earning years spent in school, caregiving, or between jobs simply drop out, provided you have at least 35 years to choose from.

If you worked fewer than 35 years, the missing slots are filled with zeros. A worker with 30 years of covered earnings has five $0 years averaged in, and those zeros pull the AIME down noticeably.⁶ This is also why continuing to work past 35 years can help: a higher current-year salary can replace a lower (or zero) year already in the top 35.

Do the Final Math

Add the indexed earnings from all 35 chosen years, then divide by 420, the number of months in 35 years. Round the result down to the nearest whole dollar. Not to the nearest, always down.⁷

If your 35 highest indexed years total $2,100,000, your AIME is $2,100,000 ÷ 420 = $5,000. If the total were $2,100,200, the result would be $5,000.48, which rounds down to $5,000.⁸

What Happens to Your AIME Next

Your AIME is not your monthly check. It’s the input to the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) formula, which is progressive: a higher percentage of lower earnings, a smaller percentage of higher earnings. For someone who turns 62 in 2026, the PIA is the sum of three brackets:

90% of the first $1,286 of AIME
32% of AIME between $1,286 and $7,749
15% of AIME above $7,749

Those dollar thresholds are called “bend points” and adjust each year with wage growth.⁹ Running the $5,000 AIME through the 2026 brackets: (90% × $1,286) + (32% × ($5,000 − $1,286)) = $1,157.40 + $1,188.48 = $2,345.88, rounded down to $2,345.80. That’s the benefit at full retirement age; claiming earlier or later shifts the actual payment.

If You’re Applying for Disability

The AIME calculation for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) follows the same structure with two changes.

The indexing year is different. Earnings are indexed to two years before the year you become entitled to disability benefits, rather than to the year you turn 60.¹⁰

The number of dropout years also varies with your age at disability, rather than being a flat five:

Age 26 or younger: 0 dropout years
Age 27–31: 1 dropout year
Age 32–36: 2 dropout years
Age 37–41: 3 dropout years
Age 42–46: 4 dropout years
Age 47 or older: 5 dropout years

Younger disabled workers have fewer elapsed years and fewer dropout years, which means fewer years get averaged but also fewer forced zeros if the work history is short. If you had no earnings in a year because you were living with a child under age 3, you may qualify for additional dropout years beyond those listed.⁶

1
Social Security Administration. Get Your Social Security Statement
2
Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base
3
Social Security Administration. Maximum Taxable Earnings
4
Social Security Administration. National Average Wage Index
5
Social Security Administration. Indexing Factors for Earnings
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 415 Computation of Primary Insurance Amount
7
Social Security Administration. Social Security Benefit Amounts
8
Social Security Administration. Annual Statistical Supplement, 2024 – Appendix C Computing a Retired-Worker Benefit
9
Social Security Administration. Primary Insurance Amount
10
Social Security Administration. The Effects of Wage Indexing on Social Security Disability Benefits