If you will collect a pension from non-covered work, the Windfall Elimination Provision cuts your own Social Security benefit. Enter your AIME and covered years to see the 2026 reduction, and check what the GPO does to a spousal benefit at the same time.
Situation: A teacher retires on a non-covered state pension but also worked 25 summers in covered jobs. Her AIME is $2,000, so her raw PIA is $1,351.
Rule / rate: With 25 of the 30 years needed to phase the penalty out, the $637 maximum reduction is halved to $318.50.
Calculation: 0.90 x $1,226 + 0.32 x ($2,000 - $1,226) = $1,351. The penalty factor is (30 - 25) / 10 = 0.5, so the reduction is 0.5 x $637.
Situation: A police officer has exactly 20 years of substantial covered earnings and an AIME of $5,000, giving a PIA of $2,311.
Rule / rate: 20 years is the cliff: at 20 or fewer years you take the full penalty, capped at either half the PIA or $637, whichever is lower.
Calculation: Half of the $2,311 PIA is $1,156, but the flat cap of $637 is smaller, so $637 is subtracted.
Situation: A firefighter with a generous non-covered pension also spent 30 years paying into Social Security part-time. AIME is $6,000.
Rule / rate: At 30 years of substantial earnings the WEP reduction is zero.
Calculation: 0.90 x $1,226 = $1,103, plus 0.32 x ($6,000 - $1,226) = $1,528. AIME stays under the $7,391 second bend point, so no 15% band applies: PIA = $2,631, and the reduction is $0.
| Worker profile | Full PIA | WEP reduction | Benefit paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME $2,000 / 30 years | $1,351 | $0 | $1,351 |
| AIME $2,000 / 25 years | $1,351 | $318 | $1,033 |
| AIME $3,500 / 22 years | $1,831 | $510 | $1,321 |
| AIME $5,000 / 20 years | $2,311 | $637 | $1,674 |
| AIME $6,000 / 18 years (under 20) | $2,631 | $637 | $1,994 |
Every figure above is produced by this page's own calculator: the 2025 PIA bend points (90% of the first $1,226 of AIME, 32% up to $7,391, 15% above), then the WEP reduction capped at 50% of the PIA and at $637 for a worker with exactly 20 years of substantial covered earnings, falling to $0 at 30 years. Fewer than 20 years means no WEP reduction at all — the 20-year exemption that survived into 2025.
The Windfall Elimination Provision reduces the Social Security benefit of people who also collect a pension from work that was never covered by Social Security — federal CSRS employees, many state and local teachers, police and firefighters, and some foreign employers. The 1983 law that created it was designed to stop a non-covered worker from getting the same 90% first-band PIA replacement rate as a low-wage lifetime worker.
Apply the 2025 bend points to the AIME: 90% of the first $1,226, plus 32% of the amount between $1,226 and $7,391, plus 15% of anything above $7,391. This is the same formula every retiree uses.
In 2026 the maximum reduction is $637 a month. Your personal cap is 50% of your PIA, or the $637 maximum, whichever is smaller. The maximum then scales down by the length of your covered career:
| Years of substantial covered earnings | Share of the $637 cap applied |
|---|---|
| 20 or fewer | 100% ($637) |
| 21 | 90% |
| 25 | 50% |
| 29 | 10% |
| 30 or more | 0% (WEP fully phased out) |
"Substantial earnings" is a separate, annually indexed threshold — roughly $31,275 in 2025 for the 25-year count — and it is not the same as simply having a Social Security record. Check your earnings year by year on your Social Security statement before assuming a year counts.
The Government Pension Offset is a different rule with a different target: spousal and survivor benefits. It cuts those by two-thirds of your non-covered pension, capped at the size of the benefit itself. So a worker can have zero WEP reduction at 30 years and still lose an entire spousal benefit to the GPO. This calculator shows both figures side by side because planning around only one of them is how people get surprised at filing.
The Social Security Fairness Act, which would repeal both WEP and GPO, passed the House in November 2024 and has been repeatedly reintroduced in the Senate without enactment. Until it is signed into law, the 1983 rules described here remain in force, and anyone who retired or filed before a repeal would generally keep the higher recalculated amount only if the statute provides for it. Treat the active-law result as your planning baseline.
The WEP hits a narrow but well-defined group: about 2 million people, concentrated among teachers in 15 states, police and firefighters in non-covered municipal plans, and civilian federal employees hired before 1984 under CSRS. For a worker with 22 years of covered earnings, the reduction is typically $350–$500 a month — roughly $75,000 of lifetime income over a 15-year retirement, before any cost-of-living adjustments compound the gap.
Because each year of substantial covered earnings removes one tenth of the maximum reduction, a worker who can pick up five more years of covered employment after 20 years at a school district changes their penalty by 50%. That is a bigger lever than almost any investment decision available at the same age, and it is easy to miss because the extra work is often part-time or seasonal.
⚠️ Important: The WEP and GPO apply only to workers who also receive a pension from employment not covered by Social Security. This calculator uses the 2025 PIA bend points and the 2026 WEP maximum; the substantial-earnings thresholds and PIA bend points are re-indexed annually. Confirm your figures against your SSA statement, and note that repeal legislation could change the result.