I make a good salary at a county organization with a governmental pension. Because of pension reform in Illinois it won't be an amazing pension like in the past. I also have 19 "qualified" years of social security (from previous jobs). I believe I'm subject to WEP and understand that I need to get to 30 qualified years in SS to maximize benefits. Should I take a part time job to earn the minimum qualifying salary to accrue 30 year in SS? Is this a waste of effort or am I even understanding the rules correctly? Btw, I love your maxifi software.

Hi. I assume you mean that your salary from your county job is exempt from Social Security taxes and that you'll eventually qualify for a pension based on those earnings. In that case if you don't have at least 30 years of Social Security covered earnings that are at or above the amount that Social Security defines as 'substantial', then your Social Security retirement benefit rate will almost certainly be lowered due to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). How much that reduction would amount to depends on several factors, such as your year of birth and the exact number of substantial earnings years that you do have (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf).

For current retirees, the maximum reduction to a person's monthly Social Security retirement benefit rate that can result from WEP amounts to a bit more than $550. Therefore, reaching at least 30 years of substantial Social Security covered earnings would not only eliminate the WEP reduction, the earnings that you have in those years would also increase your 35 year earnings average on which your Social Security retirement benefit rate is based. And, even if you don't reach 30 years of substantial earnings, each year of substantial earnings that you have in excess of 20 years would lessen the WEP reduction somewhat.

However, working in Social Security covered employment to obtain additional years of substantial earnings would mean paying Social Security and other taxes on those earnings. So, suffice to say that there's no simple answer to your question. In all likelihood, whether or not you would realize a net gain from accruing more years of substantial Social Security covered earnings would depend on how long you live to collect benefits, and whether or not you have family members who could collect benefits on your record before and/or after you die.

Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) allows you to create 'what-if' scenarios, so I would suggest using the software to compare your projected benefit rates with and without additional years of covered earnings and a WEP reduction. That should allow you to make an educated decision on whether or not you'd consider it worth it or not to try to earn more years of substantial earnings.

Best, Jerry