🎯 Calculator FRA retirement age 42 USC 416(l)
Full Retirement Age (FRA) Calculator
Your Full Retirement Age is the age at which you become entitled to 100% of your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). Claiming earlier permanently reduces your check; claiming later permanently increases it. FRA is also the age at which the Social Security earnings test stops applying — work all you want past FRA without any benefit withholding.
Your Full Retirement Age: —
Earliest claiming age (reduced): 62
Reduction at 62: —
Latest age to claim (max delayed credits): 70
Bonus at 70 vs FRA: —
—
The Full Retirement Age Schedule
Congress raised the FRA gradually as life expectancy climbed. The schedule below is from 42 U.S.C. § 416(l) and is permanent — there is no scheduled further increase under current law.
| Birth Year | Full Retirement Age |
|---|---|
| 1937 or earlier | 65 |
| 1938 | 65 years, 2 months |
| 1939 | 65 years, 4 months |
| 1940 | 65 years, 6 months |
| 1941 | 65 years, 8 months |
| 1942 | 65 years, 10 months |
| 1943 – 1954 | 66 |
| 1955 | 66 years, 2 months |
| 1956 | 66 years, 4 months |
| 1957 | 66 years, 6 months |
| 1958 | 66 years, 8 months |
| 1959 | 66 years, 10 months |
| 1960 or later | 67 |
Why FRA matters for three different decisions
- Claiming age math. The earliest you can claim retirement is 62, but doing so cuts your check by roughly 25–30% for life. Each year you delay past FRA up to 70 boosts the check by 8% (the Delayed Retirement Credit).
- The earnings test. Working before FRA can withhold benefits — $1 for every $2 over the lower limit, $1 for every $3 in the year you reach FRA. The day you hit FRA, the earnings test vanishes entirely.
- Spousal and survivor coordination. Spousal benefits taken before the spouse's FRA are reduced; survivor benefits taken before the survivor's FRA are reduced — but the FRA used here is the survivor's, not the deceased's.