While we're on the topic of social security, I recently discovered a neat little mouse trap in the system that benefits the government but not the payer.

Say you're an airline employee with two jobs, like a military job. Say your airline job pays you about $250K. Delta pays the government 6.2% up to $176,100 and I pay 6.2% up to $176,100. Once you pay that amount, well, you stop paying those payroll taxes.

Now, let's say you have a second employer who pays you about 70K. Again, 6.2% from each employer and employee. At the end of the year, you get credit towards your federal income taxes in the amount you "overpaid" SS's income cap of $176,100 (yay!, right?). Employer number one stopped paying at $176,100. So what about that 6.2% from your second employer? Whelp, the government keeps it. And you get no additional increase in benefits from your labor's contribution to Social Security.

That extra 6.2% I produced with my labor is given directly to the government. I get no credit, and no added SS benefit. Cool beans.

So in effect, this year (2025), my labor produced $21,836.40 + $5,642 = $27,478.40 in direct contributions to the Social Security scheme. One of the many hidden ways in which our tax code functions. That figure approaches 10% of every dollar I made. Before federal and state income taxes. Before local sales taxes. Before property taxes. Before all of it. 10%.