A plan to save Social Security involves wealthy people paying more — without getting an increase in benefits

Eliminating the Social Security payroll tax cap is one proposal being considered to address the program's financing shortfall. Currently, earnings above a certain threshold are not subject to the payroll tax; removing that cap would require higher-income workers to pay Social Security taxes on all earnings. Under this approach, wealthy individuals would contribute more to the program while their future benefits would not increase proportionally, as Social Security benefits are calculated using a formula that is not strictly tied to total contributions.

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