WEP Calculator: How to Use It

What this calculator does

The WEP Calculator computes the reduction to your Social Security retirement benefit that was caused by the Windfall Elimination Provision (repealed January 5, 2025). It applies the modified benefit formula, accounts for any partial exemption based on your years of substantial Social Security earnings, and enforces the 50% guarantee that prevented WEP from reducing your benefit by more than half your non-covered pension amount.

Note: The Social Security Fairness Act signed in January 2025 eliminated WEP for most affected workers. If you were subject to WEP before 2025, you may now receive your full Social Security benefit. The calculator shows both the pre-repeal and current figures so you can understand what changed and whether you're owed retroactive payments.

What each input means

Social Security benefit before WEP

Your estimated Social Security benefit based on your covered earnings record, before any WEP reduction. Find this on your Social Security Statement at ssa.gov/myaccount. The statement shows your benefit at 62, FRA, and 70. Use the FRA figure for the most accurate WEP calculation. SSA also has an online WEP calculator that computes this directly if you enter your earnings history.

Monthly amount of your non-covered pension

The monthly benefit from the employer that didn't withhold Social Security taxes. For most people this is a state or local government pension, a CSRS federal pension, or a foreign pension. Use the gross monthly amount before any deductions. If you have multiple non-covered pensions, add them together.

Years of substantial Social Security earnings

Count every year where your Social Security-covered wages exceeded the "substantial earnings" threshold for that year. SSA publishes the complete table of annual thresholds at ssa.gov. For reference: the 2025 threshold (the last year WEP was in effect) was approximately $31,275. A year in which you worked both a non-covered job and a covered job could count if total covered wages exceeded the threshold.

At 30 or more years of substantial earnings, WEP didn't apply at all. At 21 to 29 years, the WEP reduction was phased out proportionally. Below 21 years, the full WEP reduction applied.

How the WEP formula worked

Standard Social Security applies a 90% factor to the first bend point of your AIME (Average Indexed Monthly Earnings). WEP replaced that 90% with a lower factor, often 40%, when you had fewer than 21 years of substantial covered earnings. The reduction in your benefit equaled the difference between what the 90% factor would have paid and what the WEP factor paid on that first bend point. In its final year of operation (2024), the maximum WEP reduction was $587 per month.

The 50% guarantee

WEP could not reduce your Social Security benefit by more than 50% of your monthly non-covered pension. If your government pension was $500/month, the WEP reduction was capped at $250/month regardless of what the formula said. This protected workers with small pensions from a disproportionate Social Security cut.