2027 Social Security Raise: Half of Retirees Get Less Than $75

The 2027 Social Security raise is 3.6%, starting with January checks. Social Security says the average retirement check goes up about $75 a month. But more than half of retired workers get a raise under $75. This video counts who gets what, using Social Security's own records of almost 54 million retired workers. In this video: • Why the same 3.6% adds $35 or less at the bottom and $119 or more near the top • How many retirees get less than $50, less than $75, and $100 or more • Women vs. men: who lands under $75 most often • The raise by age, from the early sixties to 90 and older • Social Security's own estimates for retired workers, couples and widows • What Medicare Part B took from the last two raises • When the raise arrives, and the tax lines that never move CHAPTERS 0:00 The 2027 raise: 3.6% 1:14 Where the raise comes from 2:11 Same raise, very different dollars 3:03 Four groups by size of raise 3:19 Women vs. men 4:02 The raise by age 4:46 Round numbers 5:03 Social Security's own estimates 5:30 Married couples 5:55 The 2027 earnings limit 6:16 Medicare Part B: the last two years 6:51 When the raise arrives 7:33 Tax lines that never move 8:07 The 2027 raise in one look SOURCES Social Security Administration, "Social Security Announces 3.6 Percent Benefit Increase for 2027" (October 14, 2026): https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/press/releases/2026-10-14.html SSA, 2027 COLA Fact Sheet (average benefits before and after the raise, earnings limits): https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/cola/factsheets/2027.html SSA, 2026 and 2025 COLA Fact Sheets: https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/cola/factsheets/2026.html https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/cola/factsheets/2025.html SSA, Annual Statistical Supplement 2026, Tables 5.B6 and 5.B9 (retired workers, December 2025): https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/supplement/2026/5b.html SSA, cost-of-living adjustments since 1975 and the CPI-W: https://www.ssa.gov/cola/ https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/cpiw.html Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, September 2026: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm CMS, 2026 Medicare Part B premium: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/2026-medicare-parts-b-premiums-deductibles SSA, Schedule of Social Security Benefit Payments 2027: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10031-2027.pdf IRS Publication 915, Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p915 How it was counted: Social Security's Annual Statistical Supplement counts every retired worker paid on their own work record (about 53.6 million in December 2025) in $100 bands of monthly benefit. Each check was raised by 3.6% to estimate the January 2027 dollars, with the people inside each $100 band assumed to be evenly spread. These are estimates: they leave out people who started benefits after December 2025, Social Security's rounding to the whole dollar, and anything deducted from the check, such as the Medicare premium. Spouses and widows paid only on someone else's record are not in these counts. "The raise by age" uses the average check in each age group. Social Security's own estimates (retired worker, couple, widow or widower) are quoted directly from the 2027 COLA Fact Sheet. The last seven raises (2021 to 2027) add up to about 31%, the same as the rise in the CPI-W from the third quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2026. Medicare's 2027 Part B premium had not been announced when this video was made. Coming up on this channel: what retirees actually spend each month. The Labor Department's new spending survey comes out at the end of October. This channel is educational only and is not financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Old Man Miller is a fictional animated narrator, not a financial advisor. Research and script by the channel's creator. #socialsecurity #cola2027 #retirement