H.R. 10608: Blue Collar Social Security Fairness Act

This bill would create an earlier Social Security retirement option for certain people who work in physically demanding jobs.

What changes it would make

• It would allow some fully insured Social Security beneficiaries who qualify as “covered workers” to start receiving old-age insurance benefits at age 60 instead of waiting until age 62.
• It defines a covered worker as someone who has earned enough work credits under the bill’s point system based on time spent in a physically demanding job.
• To qualify for points, a person would need to work in a physically demanding job for at least 8 months in a calendar year.

How the point system would work

• Eligible workers would earn 1 base point per calendar year.
• They could also earn additional adjusted points depending on age at the end of the year:
  • Ages 18 to 34: 0.5 points
  • Ages 35 to 44: 1 point
  • Ages 45 to 54: 1.5 points
  • Age 55 and older: 2 points
• A person would be considered a covered worker if they earned either 20 or more base points or 15 or more adjusted points.

Who would decide which jobs count

• The Social Security Commissioner, working with the Secretaries of Labor and Health and Human Services, would have to publish a list of occupations that count as physically demanding jobs within 1 year after the law is enacted.
• That list would be updated every 3 years.
• Once an occupation is determined to qualify for a given calendar year, that determination could not later be reversed for that year.
• The bill says a job qualifies if it involves substantial physical demands that can reasonably be expected to reduce a person’s ability to keep doing that work, or similar work, at an older age.

Other Social Security changes

• It would make the usual early retirement reduction rules inapplicable to these covered workers’ old-age benefits, meaning their benefits would not be reduced in the same way as other early retirees’ benefits.
• It would also adjust the retirement earnings test for covered workers.
• For covered workers, the monthly exempt amount used in the earnings test would be set at $833.33 for taxable years ending after 2026 and before 2028.

When it would take effect

• The changes would apply to benefits paid for any month after 2026.

Relevant Companies

None found