07 Dec Teachers are public employees. Do they get Social Security?

Q. Teachers are public employees. Aren’t they clobbered with the Windfall Elimination Provision?
— Curious

A. Not all teachers are covered by Social Security.

It all depends on where they work.

When Social Security first began it didn’t cover any public sector employees, said Bernie Kiely, a certified financial planner and certified public accountant with Kiely Capital Management in Morristown.

That’s because public Sector employees were already covered by government pensions, he said.

“Almost all private sector employees contribute to and are covered by Social Security,” he said. “The key to being eligible for Social Security is you and your employer must contribute to the Social Security trust fund for your entire working career.”

The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) that you mentioned says that if you do not contribute into the Social Security system, you are not entitled to a Social Security benefit, Kiely said.

There are currently 15 states that participate solely in their own pension plans and not Social Security. Teachers in those 15 states do not contribute to Social Security and as a result, they are not entitled to a Social Security benefit when they retire, he said.

New Jersey is not one of those states, Kiely said

So if you are a teacher in the New Jersey public school system, you do participate and contribute to the Social Security system, Kiely said, directing you to boxes 3 and # on your W-2 statement.

“Box No. 3 shows how much of your pay was subject to Social Security tax. Box No. 4 shows how much you and your employer each paid in Social Security tax,” Kiely said. For every dollar you pay in Social Security tax, your employer also pays the same amount. So public school teachers in New Jersey are entitled to a state teacher’s pension and to Social Security retirement benefits when they retire.”

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This story was originally published on Dec. 7, 2022.

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