Social Security was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Committee on Economic Security, a cabinet-level group chaired by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, and enacted by Congress as the Social Security Act, which Roosevelt signed on August 14, 1935.1Social Security Administration. Social Security Act of 1935 The question of who created Social Security has more than one answer, though, because the program was the work of a network: politicians who supplied the will, a cabinet secretary who chaired the design work, an economist who ran the research, a lawyer who drafted language built to survive court challenges, and an actuary whose numbers made the math work.
Why It Was Created
Before the 1930s, the federal government had no program to support elderly or unemployed Americans. Retirement was a private matter, handled through family savings, charity, or local poorhouses. The Great Depression broke that arrangement. Bank failures wiped out savings, the job market collapsed, and poverty among older Americans became a visible national emergency rather than a private misfortune.
That desperation created political pressure Roosevelt could not ignore. Dr. Francis Townsend, a California physician, proposed paying every American over 60 a flat $200 per month, funded by a national sales tax. The Townsend Plan attracted millions of supporters, and there is evidence Roosevelt was prodded to introduce his own proposal specifically to counter the movement’s growing influence.2Social Security Administration. The Townsend Plan Movement On June 8, 1934, Roosevelt addressed Congress and declared that among his objectives, he placed “the security of the men, women, and children of the Nation first.”3The American Presidency Project. Letter From the Presidents Committee on Economic Security Transmitted to Congress With the Report of the Committee
The Committee on Economic Security
Three weeks after that speech, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6757 on June 29, 1934, creating the Committee on Economic Security. Its members were the Secretary of Labor as chair, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administrator.4The American Presidency Project. Executive Order 6757 – Establishing the Committee on Economic Security and the Advisory Council on Economic Security Their assignment was to design a workable program to address old-age poverty, unemployment, and related risks. The committee’s technical work drew on social insurance models from Germany and Great Britain, adapted for the American economy.
The People Who Built It
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Roosevelt supplied the political will. He made economic security a centerpiece of his agenda and used his platform to shift the national conversation toward federal responsibility for citizens’ welfare. Without his backing, the committee’s technical work would have stayed on paper. He framed Social Security not as charity but as an earned right, a system workers would pay into throughout their careers and draw from in retirement.
Frances Perkins
As Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins chaired the Committee on Economic Security and is widely described as the principal architect of the Social Security Act.5U.S. Department of Labor. Hall of Secretaries – Frances Perkins She was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, appointed by Roosevelt in 1933. Her background ran deep in labor reform. She had worked in settlement houses in Chicago, witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City, and served as New York’s Industrial Commissioner under Governor Roosevelt. Perkins insisted that old-age insurance be the core of the plan, not just unemployment relief, and she navigated cabinet politics and opposition from those who feared federal overreach to keep the proposal intact.
Edwin Witte
Edwin Witte, a University of Wisconsin economics professor, served as the committee’s executive director and ran the day-to-day research operation.6Social Security Administration. Edwin Witte He coordinated work from dozens of specialists, synthesized competing proposals, and balanced the interests of labor leaders, business owners, and the general public.
Thomas Eliot
Perkins appointed Thomas H. Eliot as counsel for the committee. He drafted the legislative text of the Social Security bill, with particular attention to language that could survive constitutional challenges in the Supreme Court.7Social Security Administration. Thomas Eliot That foresight proved critical, because legal challenges arrived almost immediately after the law passed.
Robert J. Myers
Robert J. Myers performed the original actuarial estimates for the Social Security Act of 1935 while serving on the committee.8Social Security Administration. The Robert J. Myers Papers His financial projections helped set tax rates and benefit schedules meant to keep the system solvent over decades. Myers later served as the SSA’s Chief Actuary from 1947 to 1970.
Arthur Altmeyer
Arthur J. Altmeyer joined the Social Security Board when it was created in 1935 and held the program’s top leadership position for all but two years between 1935 and 1953, earning him the nickname “Mr. Social Security.”9Social Security Administration. Arthur Altmeyer Comments on Social Security He served as a Board member, then chairman, then Commissioner. Altmeyer shaped the program’s guiding philosophy: benefits should be weighted in favor of lower-wage earners and workers with dependents, and everyone in the same situation should be treated alike.
How It Passed Congress
The administration’s bill was introduced on January 17, 1935, by Senator Robert Wagner in the Senate and by Congressmen Robert Doughton and David Lewis in the House.10Social Security Administration. 1935 Congressional Debates on Social Security The House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee handled the debates and amendments that shaped the final version.
The bill passed the House on April 19, 1935, by a vote of 372 to 33. The Senate followed on June 19 with a vote of 77 to 6.10Social Security Administration. 1935 Congressional Debates on Social Security Those lopsided margins reflected real public demand for action. After reconciling the House and Senate versions, Roosevelt signed the bill on August 14, 1935.
What the 1935 Law Established
The Social Security Act established a federal system of old-age benefits and a federal-state program for unemployment compensation. It also provided federal grants for maternal and child welfare, public health work, and aid to the blind. Employers and employees paid into the system through payroll deductions, building a trust fund that would pay retirement benefits starting at age 65. Alongside the insurance program, the Act created Old-Age Assistance, a separate track that provided immediate financial help to impoverished elderly Americans who had not contributed to the system.1Social Security Administration. Social Security Act of 1935 A three-member Social Security Board, appointed by the president, oversaw the operation.11Social Security Administration. Language on Independent Agency Issue From 1935 Social Security Act
The original Act was narrower than the program most Americans know today. It covered only workers in commerce and industry, leaving out roughly half the workforce. Agricultural workers and domestic workers were the two largest excluded groups.12Social Security Administration. The Decision to Exclude Agricultural and Domestic Workers From the 1935 Social Security Act Because Black Americans were disproportionately employed in those occupations in the 1930s, the exclusions had a severe racial impact that scholars have debated ever since. Those workers gained coverage in the 1950 amendments.
The first payroll taxes were collected in January 1937.13Social Security Administration. Social Security History FAQs Monthly benefit checks did not begin until January 1940. In the interim, workers who reached 65 and were not eligible for monthly benefits received a lump-sum payment equal to 3 percent of the wages they had earned under the system.14National Archives. Social Security Act 1935 The first person to receive a recurring monthly check was Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont. Her check, dated January 31, 1940, was for $22.54.15Social Security Administration. The First Social Security Beneficiary
The Court Fight That Let It Survive
Opponents challenged the Act’s constitutionality almost immediately. On May 24, 1937, the Supreme Court issued two landmark decisions on the same day. In Helvering v. Davis, Justice Cardozo’s majority opinion upheld the old-age benefits and payroll tax provisions, rejecting the argument that they invaded powers reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment.16Social Security Administration. Justice Cardozo – Helvering vs. Davis In Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, the Court upheld the unemployment insurance tax, ruling it was a legitimate excise tax and that the federal-state cooperation structure was voluntary, not coercive.17Justia Law. Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 548 Thomas Eliot’s careful drafting had paid off, and the legal foundation of Social Security was settled.