Why aren't 2024 earnings on Social Security website showing full income? Only three figures showing instead of actual five-figure salary

Social Security earnings records often lag behind by several months, sometimes even longer. Employers typically report wages to SSA annually, not quarterly. They report quarterly to the IRS for tax purposes, but the wage reporting that shows up on your Social Security earnings record is usually done once a year, based on your W-2 forms. For 2024 earnings, what you're seeing now is likely just partial information or could even be from a different employer earlier in the year. Most 2024 earnings won't fully appear in Social Security records until sometime in 2025 after all W-2s are processed. As long as your daughter and son-in-law receive accurate W-2s at tax time, and their employer is withholding the proper FICA taxes, their earnings will eventually be credited correctly to their Social Security records.

my earnings never show up until like a YEAR later!!! the SSA system is so outdated its ridiculous. as long as your getting paychecks with the right deductions ur probably fine. they'll update eventually

This happens to me EVERY single year! The Social Security Administration is literally running on technology from the Stone Age. I check my earnings record religiously (after getting burned once when an employer didn't report properly), and there's always a huge lag. Did your daughter and son-in-law check if their 2023 earnings are showing correctly? That would be a better indicator if there's actually a problem versus just the normal glacial pace of SSA updates.

Wages are reported to Social Security annually. While employers do submit quarterly tax filings to the IRS, the earnings that get posted to your Social Security record typically come from the W-2 process after the end of each calendar year. What you might be seeing are partial year earnings from a different source, or perhaps early reported wages before they started at their current employer. If they've changed jobs during 2024, sometimes there can be confusion in the reporting. The best practice is to check your Social Security statement annually, but understand there's always about a 1-year lag for the most recent year's earnings. As long as their 2023 earnings show correctly, I wouldn't worry about 2024 yet.

I had the same issue last year and spent WEEKS trying to get through to someone at Social Security to ask about it. Kept getting busy signals or disconnected after waiting for hours. I finally found a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to a real SSA agent in about 20 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU The agent explained that earnings typically don't show up until the following year after tax forms are processed. The small amount showing might be from a previous job or some other reported income. Nothing to worry about as long as prior years look accurate!

my wifes earnings never updated for 2022 and when we finally got ahold of ssa they said her employer never filed the right paperwork!!! make sure they check again in a few months and if it's still not right they should bring paystubs to the ss office

dont worry about 2024 earnings yet its way too early!! they wont show up til like april-june 2025 after all the w2s are processed. ssa only updates once a year not quarterly like you thought

Every single time I log into my Social Security account I have a mini heart attack when I see missing earnings for the current year. It's such a terribly designed system that gives no explanation or context for why current year earnings aren't showing. They should at least put a big disclaimer saying "CURRENT YEAR EARNINGS WILL NOT APPEAR UNTIL NEXT YEAR" but noooo, that would be too helpful! 🙄 Has anyone found any tricks to see current year earnings before the official update?

Thank you everyone for the helpful responses! I'm much less worried now. I'll let my daughter and SIL know this is normal and that they should check again in mid-2025 to make sure their 2024 earnings show up correctly. It really would be nice if the SS website explained this delay more clearly instead of just showing such obviously incorrect numbers without any explanation!

I totally understand the confusion! This is actually one of the most common questions people have about their Social Security records. The key thing to remember is that SSA operates on a completely different timeline than what most people expect. Your daughter and son-in-law's situation is 100% normal. Those small amounts showing for 2024 could be from early in the year before they started their current jobs, or even partial reporting from their employer's payroll system. The bulk of their 2024 earnings won't appear until SSA processes all the W-2 forms next year. I'd recommend they bookmark their SSA accounts and check again around May or June 2025 - that's typically when you'll see the previous year's earnings fully updated. And definitely keep those pay stubs just in case there are any discrepancies down the road!

This is such a common source of anxiety for people! I went through the exact same panic when I first started checking my Social Security earnings record regularly. The system really is counterintuitive compared to how we expect online accounts to work nowadays. One thing that helped me understand the timeline better: think of your Social Security earnings record as more like an annual tax document than a real-time account statement. Just like how your tax documents for 2024 won't be available until early 2025, your SSA earnings record follows that same W-2 processing cycle. The good news is that once you understand this rhythm, it becomes much less stressful. I now just check mine once a year in the summer to verify the previous year's earnings posted correctly. Your daughter and son-in-law are doing great by checking their records - that's exactly what they should be doing to stay on top of their future benefits!

I work in payroll for a large company and can confirm everything everyone else is saying! We submit quarterly reports to the IRS for tax withholding purposes, but the actual wage reporting to Social Security happens annually when we file everyone's W-2s. The timeline is usually: employers file W-2s by January 31st, then SSA processes millions of these forms over the next several months. Most people see their earnings updated between March and June of the following year. Those small amounts your daughter and son-in-law are seeing for 2024 are probably legitimate - maybe from a part-time job early in the year, freelance work, or even just timing differences in how their current employer reports. As long as they're seeing proper FICA deductions on their pay stubs (6.2% for Social Security, 1.45% for Medicare), everything should show up correctly next year. One tip: have them screenshot or print their current earnings record now, then compare it next summer when 2024 updates. That way they'll have proof of what was there before if any corrections are needed!