SGA 2027 is $1,770 a month ($2,950 blind): all 2027 SSA figures

The Social Security Administration published its 2027 figures on October 14, 2026, the same morning it announced the 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment, and formalized them in a Federal Register notice dated October 26. The headline for disability beneficiaries is the substantial gainful activity line: $1,770 a month for non-blind workers and $2,950 for blind workers, up from $1,690 and $2,830. Behind it sits a single number that moved more than anyone projected, the national average wage index for 2025, which came in at $72,800.33, 4.23 percent above the 2024 index.

The official 2027 figures

Every row below comes from the Social Security Administration’s notice “Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2027” (Federal Register document 2026-21796), which prints both the formula and the unrounded result for each figure. The last column is what this page projected before the announcement under its central scenario.

Each 2027 figure is the base-year amount in the statute or regulation multiplied by the ratio of the 2025 wage index to the base-year index, then rounded by the rule specific to that item: nearest $10 for SGA, the trial work period, the quarter of coverage and the earnings test; nearest $1 for the bend points; nearest $300 for the wage base and the old-law base; down to the next lower $100 for the domestic employee threshold; and nearest $100 for the election worker threshold. The non-blind SGA, for instance, is $700 × (72,800.33 ÷ 28,861.44) = $1,765.69, which rounds to $1,770.

What we projected, and why it came in higher

Before the announcement, this page borrowed its central scenario from the Social Security Trustees, whose 2026 report projected a 2027 wage base of $190,200. Working that figure backward implied wage index growth of about 3.1 percent for 2025. The actual growth was 4.23 percent. That single gap explains every miss in the last column: the formulas were right, and the 2026 control (every 2026 figure reproduced exactly from the 2024 index) held, but the input was too low. The official numbers landed between this page’s two alternate scenarios, the +3.5 percent and +5.5 percent columns, closer to the first.

Two figures came out exactly as projected or as flagged. The domestic employee threshold, which this page called $3,100 under every scenario because it rounds down to the next $100, is $3,100. The election worker threshold was the one we identified as sitting near a step, with the change from $2,600 to $2,700 occurring at wage growth of about 4.06 percent; growth of 4.23 percent pushed it over, to $2,700.

How close the SGA line came to $1,760

The unrounded non-blind SGA amount is $1,765.69, only 69 cents above the $1,765 point at which it would have rounded down to $1,760 instead of up to $1,770. Put differently, a 2025 wage index just 0.04 percent lower, about $28 less on a $72,800 average, would have produced a $1,760 threshold. The trial work period was similarly close: $1,266.31 rounds to $1,270, but it would have rounded to $1,260 below $1,265, a margin of about 0.10 percent on the wage index. Neither figure was ever in doubt once the index was published, but the arithmetic shows how a $10 step in a disability threshold can hinge on a fraction of a percent of national wage growth.

Two clocks, one announcement

The confusion in most coverage comes from the fact that the Social Security Administration bundles two unrelated sets of numbers into one annual notice. This site’s 2027 COLA tracker covers the CPI-W side; this page covers the wage index side.

The wage index also runs two years behind the figures it sets. The 2027 amounts are built from the index for 2025, the same way the 2026 amounts were built from the index for 2024 ($69,846.57). That lag is why the figures can only be projected, never known, until the October announcement.

Who this affects

A worker with a disability earning close to the SGA line. Someone earning $1,750 a month was above the 2026 non-blind line of $1,690, which Social Security ordinarily treats as evidence of substantial gainful activity. Under the 2027 line of $1,770, the same $1,750 sits $20 below it. The determination looks at countable earnings, after deductions such as impairment-related work expenses, and nothing about the underlying condition changes; only the line it is measured against does. The higher $2,950 amount is set under title II of the Act, the Social Security disability insurance program.

A disability beneficiary testing a return to work. Each 2027 month with earnings above $1,270 uses one of the nine trial work months available in a rolling 60-month window. A month at $1,250 that would have counted in 2026, when the line was $1,210, does not count in 2027.

An early retiree still working while collecting benefits. Someone earning $30,000 in 2027, below full retirement age all year, is measured against the $25,560 exempt amount: the excess is $4,440, and Social Security withholds $1 for every $2 over, or $2,220. The same salary measured against the 2026 limit of $24,480 meant $2,760 withheld, so identical earnings cost $540 less in 2027. None of the withheld money disappears; the benefit is recalculated upward at full retirement age to credit the months withheld, as explained in the earnings test guide.

Someone close to insured status. Workers generally need 40 credits for retirement benefits, and one credit in 2027 requires $1,970 of earnings, so $7,880 earned at any point in the year secures the maximum four. The bar matters most to people with intermittent work histories.

Workers turning 62 in 2027. The bend points of $1,340 and $8,077 set the benefit formula for people first eligible in 2027, which mostly means those born in 1965: 90 percent of the first $1,340 of average indexed monthly earnings, 32 percent of the amount up to $8,077 and 15 percent above that. For average indexed earnings of $5,000, the primary insurance amount is $1,206.00 + $1,171.20 = $2,377.20, before any later COLAs.

Households paying a nanny or housekeeper. Cash wages of $3,100 or more paid to a household employee in 2027 are subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes, reported on Schedule H; the 2026 threshold is $3,000. The coverage threshold for election officials and election workers is $2,700.

The other clock: SSI in 2027

The SSI federal benefit rate moves with the COLA, not the wage index. Applying 3.6 percent to the unrounded 2026 annual amounts and rounding down to a multiple of $12 gives $1,029 a month for an individual, $1,544 for an eligible couple and $516 for an essential person, up from $994, $1,491 and $498. This page had projected $1,025 to $1,028 for an individual from a COLA band of 3.2 to 3.5 percent; the September CPI-W pushed the COLA above the top of that band. The full SSI picture, including income limits, people on both programs and the payment calendar, is in SSI payment 2027.

What is official, what is still pending

The first 2027 COLA payment date and the net increase after the Medicare Part B premium are tracked on their own pages. The wage base above is the ceiling on the 6.2 percent Social Security portion of FICA withholding, detailed in the 2027 wage base page, and anyone who wants to see the 2027 numbers applied to an actual benefit can run them through the 2027 Social Security check calculator.

Sources

• Social Security Administration — Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2027, Federal Register document 2026-21796 (Oct. 26, 2026) — 2025 national average wage index, formulas and unrounded and official 2027 figures for SGA, trial work period, quarter of coverage, earnings test, bend points, family maximum, wage base, old-law base, domestic and election worker thresholds, and SSI.
• Social Security Administration — Social Security Announces 3.6 Percent Benefit Increase for 2027 (Oct. 14, 2026) — announcement date and COLA.
• Social Security Administration — Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2026, 90 FR 49047 (Nov. 3, 2025) — 2026 figures and the 2024 wage index used for the control.
• 42 U.S.C. § 413(d) — Quarter of coverage · 42 U.S.C. § 415 — Bend points and cost-of-living adjustments · 42 U.S.C. § 403(f)(8) — Earnings test exempt amounts · 20 CFR § 404.1574 — SGA earnings guidelines · 42 U.S.C. § 1382f — SSI cost-of-living adjustments.
• Social Security Trustees — 2026 OASDI Trustees Report — source of the $190,200 wage-base projection behind this page’s pre-announcement central scenario.