Federal civilian employees start 2027 on the same pay tables they have now unless Congress writes a different figure, while the same letter directs a 3.8 percent increase for law enforcement. President Trump’s alternative pay plan, a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson dated August 26, 2026, says “base pay and locality pay for civilian…

Four Social Security credits are the most a worker can earn in a year, and in 2027 each one takes $1,970 in covered earnings. Social Security’s actuaries state it flatly: the amount of earnings required for a quarter of coverage in 2027 is $1,970. A worker who earns $7,880 or more in covered wages or…

The year a worker reaches full retirement age comes with the higher of Social Security’s two earnings limits. For 2027 it is $67,920, and the agency’s COLA page says the limit applies to people reaching full retirement age in 2027. Pay up to that amount, earned in the months before the month of the birthday,…

Starting with the first paychecks of January, Social Security tax will apply to up to $192,300 of a worker’s yearly pay, up from $184,500 this year. Social Security calls that figure the taxable maximum, and it is the line above which wages stop being taxed for the retirement and disability program. Anyone who earns less…

Social Security raised the earnings limit for people collecting benefits before full retirement age to $25,560 for 2027, up from $24,480 in 2026. Past that line, the agency deducts $1 from benefits for each $2 earned. The change sits inside the October 14 announcement of a 3.6 percent cost-of-living increase, and it matters to anyone…

Maine restaurant servers, bartenders and other tipped workers will see their guaranteed cash wage go up on the first day of 2027. The state’s tipped cash wage rises to $7.85 an hour on January 1, from $7.55, alongside an increase in Maine’s general minimum wage from $15.10 to $15.70 an hour. The new rates The…

Tipped employees working on a narrow slice of federal contracts will see their required cash wage rise to $9.85 an hour on January 6, 2027, up from $9.55. The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division published the new rates on October 8 in a Federal Register notice signed by Administrator Andrew B. Rogers. The same…

New Jersey’s maximum tip credit stays at $9.87 an hour when the state’s new wage rates start on January 1, 2027, even as the minimum cash wage for tipped workers rises from $6.05 to $6.61. The state’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced the figures on September 29, 2026, in a press release that…

New York’s tipped food-service workers will not get a raise in their base pay on January 1. The state Labor Department’s minimum wage page lists the cash wage for tipped food-service workers at $11.35 an hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester, and $10.70 an hour in the rest of the state, and…

A federal worker with family coverage will pay about $328.15 every two weeks in 2027 toward the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, the Office of Personnel Management’s new premium table shows. The program-wide average for Self and Family coverage is $1,171.97 per biweekly pay period, and the government covers $843.82 of it. The worker’s share…