Who Pays the AARP Tax Increase?
Approximately 9.8 million workers exceeded the wage cap in 2003, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s March Current Population Survey. These workers would face a major increase in taxes under AARP’s proposal. Of those 9.8 million workers, over 3.6 million are over 50, and over 600,000 are 62 years or older. Many workers over 50 are in their peak earning years and are to be hit hard by any payroll tax increases. Workers over 62 may simply chose to retire early and avoid altogether the sting of AARP’s Social Security plan. In addition, AARP’s plan would impact many families’ finances. About 7.8 million workers of the workers who would face higher taxes are married. And about 3.3 million of those workers are not the heads of their households; facing much higher marginal tax rates, many of these workers may choose to exit the workforce or scale back their employment.
