OASDI on your paycheck is your contribution to Social Security, and it stands for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance. In 2026, your employer withholds 6.2% of your gross wages for OASDI on earnings up to $184,500, and your employer pays a matching 6.2% on top of that. Every dollar you send in buys you credit toward future retirement, survivor, or disability benefits.
What the Three Letters Actually Cover
OASDI is one tax funding three separate benefit programs. Each one replaces a portion of lost income rather than building a retirement account with your name on it.
Old-Age is the retirement piece. Monthly payments go to eligible workers and their spouses once they reach retirement age. You can claim as early as 62, but doing so before full retirement age of 67 permanently reduces the monthly amount by as much as 30%.1Social Security Administration. Early or Late Retirement For workers born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67; for those born in 1959, it’s 66 and 10 months.2Social Security Administration. Normal Retirement Age The maximum monthly benefit for someone retiring at full retirement age in 2026 is $4,152.3Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet
Survivors benefits go to eligible family members of a worker who dies after paying into the system. A surviving spouse, divorced spouse, child, or dependent parent may qualify.4Social Security Administration. Survivor Benefits
Disability Insurance replaces income for workers who develop a severe disability that prevents them from working. The Social Security Administration applies a strict medical standard and requires enough work credits to qualify.
How You Earn Credit for These Benefits
Paying OASDI is how you earn credits (formally called quarters of coverage) that determine whether you qualify. You can earn up to four credits per year no matter how much you make. In 2026, one credit costs $1,890 in covered earnings, so $7,560 gets you the full four for the year.5Social Security Administration. Quarter of Coverage Retirement benefits require 40 credits, roughly ten years of work.6Social Security Administration. Retirement Benefits Disability uses a sliding scale that requires fewer credits for younger workers and more for older ones, with a minimum of six credits in any case.7Social Security Administration. Disability Benefits Credits stay on your record permanently, so if you stop working before hitting 40, they wait for you.
How Much Comes Out, and the 2026 Wage Cap
The employee OASDI rate is 6.2% of covered wages, set by federal statute.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 3101 – Rate of Tax Your employer withholds that from every paycheck and sends it to the IRS along with a matching 6.2% from company funds. You never see the employer’s half on your stub, but it effectively doubles the contribution being made on your behalf.9Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 751, Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates
OASDI only applies up to a cap called the contribution and benefit base. For 2026, that cap is $184,500.10Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base Every dollar you earn above that in the same calendar year is free from the 6.2% withholding until January starts the count over. If you cross the cap mid-year, your take-home pay jumps in the paycheck where the withholding stops.
The maximum OASDI tax an employee pays in 2026 is $11,439, and the employer pays the same amount, for a combined ceiling of $22,878.10Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base The wage base is adjusted each year based on the national average wage index, which is why the number creeps up. It also caps the earnings that count toward your future benefit: income above the cap isn’t taxed, and it doesn’t build your benefit either.
Self-employed workers pay the full 12.4% themselves through the Self-Employment Contributions Act, since there’s no employer to cover the other half. They can deduct the employer-equivalent portion of the total self-employment tax when calculating adjusted gross income, which reduces income tax but not the self-employment tax itself.11Internal Revenue Service. Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes)
OASDI Versus the Medicare Line Next to It
Your stub likely shows a separate Medicare deduction alongside OASDI. The Medicare Hospital Insurance tax is 1.45% for both employee and employer, and unlike OASDI it has no wage cap. Every dollar you earn is subject to it.10Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base Add the 6.2% OASDI to the 1.45% Medicare and you get the full 7.65% FICA bite.
High earners face one more layer. An additional 0.9% Medicare tax applies to wages above $200,000 in a calendar year. Your employer starts withholding that extra amount once your pay crosses the threshold, regardless of filing status, and there is no employer match on this piece.9Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 751, Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates
Who Doesn’t Pay OASDI
Most workers have no choice about paying, but a few narrow exemptions exist.
Members of recognized religious sects that have provided for their dependents since at least 1950 and are conscientiously opposed to insurance benefits can apply for an exemption using IRS Form 4029. Approval waives all rights to Social Security and Medicare benefits.12Internal Revenue Service. Form 4029, Application for Exemption From Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Waiver of Benefits
Students employed by their school are also generally exempt from FICA, if enrolled at least half-time at the same institution and not classified as a professional employee of it.13Internal Revenue Service. Student FICA Exception Some state and local government workers covered by a qualifying pension plan that existed before 1984 may not participate in Social Security either, depending on whether their state signed a voluntary coverage agreement with the SSA. Nonresident aliens on F-1, J-1, M-1, or Q-1 visas are generally exempt as well. Most W-2 employees will see OASDI on every paycheck for their entire career.
Getting Back OASDI You Overpaid
If you worked for two or more employers in the same year and your combined wages topped $184,500, you probably overpaid OASDI. Each employer withholds independently and neither one knows what the other is doing, so both keep taking 6.2% past the point where a single employer would have stopped.
You recover the excess when you file your federal income tax return. The IRS treats the overpaid Social Security tax as a credit against your income tax.14Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 608, Excess Social Security and RRTA Tax Withheld If a single employer withheld too much on its own, that employer handles the correction directly rather than you claiming it on your return.