Lifetime covered earnings and quarters of coverage of retired and disabled workers, 1972

This article presents information on the lifetime covered earnings of retired-worker and disabled worker beneficiaries under OASDHI, the year of their first earnings credits, their quarters of coverage, and the relationship of these factors to 1972 benefit levels. Among both groups, relatively more women began earning credits after 1940; they also worked fewer years in covered employment and had lower lifetime earnings overall. Their benefits were thus smaller than those of men. White men tended to have higher lifetime covered earnings than did black and other men, but the latter sometimes had lifetime earnings that exceeded those of white women with equal quarters of coverage. Black women and those of other minority races tended to have the lowest lifetime covered earnings. Both retired and disabled workers whose covered employment began after 1950 were likely to have benefits as high or higher than the benefits of those with earlier credits--a reflection of rising wage levels and higher taxable maximums, as well as the "new start" computation method. as well as the "new start" computation method.