I was at a family gathering, and several of the older people said they were "notch babies". I know that it was the people born between 1921 and 1927, but why do they pay them less Social Security than others? For us, this will be a moot point, since we will probably have our Social Security cut to nothing, but what are the political and social issues connected with notch babies?

Notch Babies

When Congress phased out a cost-of-living allowance increase in the late 1970s, it created a "notch." A person born in 1916, making an average salary and retiring at age 65, would receive a Social Security payment of about $625 a month. Being born one year later means the monthly benefit was reduced to $510 dollars a month, a difference of $115 dollars each month. - CNN/Money (Sometime in 1998)
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My father was one. His pension from 5 years in a local school system was higher than either his SS payments or his pension from 37 years in a steel mill. (The mill had closed, and someone decided that pensions were expendable. What was done was legal, but I would be very happy to find out that whoever made that decision died a painful death.) Dad had to work until he was 67 in order to have insurance coverage for my mother, who had cancer. He finally retired after she died.
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More recent information here. Notch babies were born after 1916 and and before 1927. http://www.tscl.org/NotchReform.asp

Now that is truly interesting. Never heard of notch babies before.

I never had either Honi...wow

quote:

My father was one. His pension from 5 years in a local school system was higher than either his SS payments or his pension from 37 years in a steel mill. DG.

Rings a bell with me. I had 25 years in the steel industry, retired with a vested pension at 50 to go into business, at 55 I got into teaching. After 11 years teaching, I get more than 200% of the pension from 25 years in the steel industry. I saw the handwriting on the wall when I got out of Bethlehem Steel.