Title: Protecting Benefits for Retirees Act
Policy area: Social Welfare

Summary:
Protecting Benefits for Retirees Act
This bill specifies that the national average wage index used in calculations related to Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) benefit programs must be at least as high as the wage index used in the previous year. Specifically, for any year in which the average wage index declines, the calculations must use the index that applied during the previous year.
Under current law, the wage index adjusts the value of an individual's actual earnings to account for changes in average wages over time across a range of OASDI programs, such as when determining benefit amounts for retired workers and certain income thresholds that apply to recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. Using an average wage index that is lower than in previous years reduces the benefit amounts and relevant income thresholds. For example, under current law, if the average wage index in 2020 is lower than it was in 2019, an individual who turns 60 (the age at which past earnings are indexed) in 2020 would receive reduced retirement benefits compared to a similar individual who turned 60 in 2019.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4180 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4180

   To amend title II of the Social Security Act to provide that the 
  national average wage index for any year shall not be less than the 
   amount of the national average wage index for the preceding year.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              July 2, 2020

Mr. Kaine (for himself and Mr. Cassidy) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title II of the Social Security Act to provide that the 
  national average wage index for any year shall not be less than the 
   amount of the national average wage index for the preceding year.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Protecting Benefits for Retirees 
Act''.

SEC. 2. MODIFYING THE CALCULATION OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY AVERAGE WAGE 
              INDEX TO CONFORM WITH THE CALCULATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY 
              COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENTS AND TAXABLE MAXIMUM.

    Section 209(k) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 409(k)) is 
amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``subject to 
        regulations'' and inserting ``subject to paragraph (4) and 
        regulations''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(4) For any calendar year after 2019, if the average of the total 
wages for a calendar year is less than the national average wage index 
applicable under this subsection for the preceding calendar year, the 
amount of the national average wage index for the calendar year 
involved shall be the amount of the national average wage index that 
applied under this subsection for such preceding calendar year.''.
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