Every paycheck a Gen Z worker earns comes with a promise attached: Pay Social Security taxes now, and the program will provide income when you retire. But the latest government projections show Social Security faces a substantial funding gap. Social Security’s retirement trust fund is projected to exhaust its reserves in 2032, decades before most Gen Z members reach retirement age.
While this does not mean Social Security will vanish or stop sending checks, benefits would be cut significantly unless Congress acts, experts say. That's not what the numbers actually say,” Michael Ryan, a finance expert and the founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, told Newsweek. The size of their eventual check will also depend on what Congress does during the coming decades.
Gen Z workers are currently helping finance benefits for today’s retirees. In 2026, employees pay a 6.2 percent Social Security tax on earnings up to $184,500, while employers pay another 6.2 percent. Self-employed workers generally pay the combined 12.4 percent rate.
Because Social Security is largely a pay-as-you-go system, taxes collected from current workers and employers fund current benefits, while any surplus is held in the program’s trust funds. Today’s demographic challenge is that the number of beneficiaries is rising faster than the workforce supporting them. Someone in their 20s may spend four decades making retirement decisions around a program whose taxes, retirement age or benefit formula could change several times before they collect,” Ryan said.
Financial experts’ short answer is probably yes, but the amount is uncertain. In 2032, payroll taxes are not set to immediately disappear and Social Security will not automatically end. Even if Congress didn’t act to save full Social Security benefits, the incoming revenue would continue covering most, though not all, scheduled benefits.
Scheduled benefits are the amounts promised under the current benefit formula. Meanwhile, payable benefits are the amounts the program could finance with the revenue available under current law. Under the combined projection from the 2026 Social Security Trustees Report, Social Security could pay: However, Gen Z should not view the 83 percent projection as a confirmed 17 percent cut to every future check.
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