Do Oklahoma teachers pay Social Security? TRS and the 2026 earnings limit

1. Do Oklahoma teachers pay into Social Security?

TRS answers for its own members: “Most TRS members contribute to Social Security, which means most will earn a Social Security benefit for the time employed at a TRS-covered job.” TRS gives no number or share. Its members are not only teachers; its handbook says: “Our members are the educators and employees working in Oklahoma public education institutions and agencies.”

Coverage is set district by district. Oklahoma law says: “In addition to the teachers’ retirement herein provided, teachers may voluntarily avail themselves of the federal Social Security program upon a district basis.” (70 O.S. § 17-105(O)). Under Oklahoma’s Social Security coverage law, the vote on coverage starts with the district: the Governor authorizes it “upon written request of the governing body of such subdivision or instrumentality” (51 O.S. § 131(a)), and a school district counts as a political subdivision (§ 122(f)).

Coverage has not been the same in every district. A Social Security Administration (SSA) legal opinion of February 16, 2000 records one Oklahoma school district whose TRS positions were covered for Medicare only (in SSA’s words, “to Health Insurance only coverage”), after a 1999 vote of the district’s employees. We did not find whether that district’s coverage changed later, and no official source we found counts the districts in or out.

How to check your own: TRS says, “To determine if your employer participates in the Social Security system, you can ask your employer directly, review your pay stubs for Social Security tax deductions, or check your earnings record on the Social Security Administration’s website.”

2. A TRS pension and Social Security

TRS’s FY2027 Member Handbook describes retirement income from three sources, a “three-legged stool” made up of “the lifetime monthly retirement benefit from TRS’s 401(a) plan, Social Security benefits, and income from a defined contribution plan”.

The two benefits come from different systems. TRS’s page for retired members first says that most TRS members contribute to Social Security (section 1). Right after that, it says: “Those members receive benefit payments from both TRS and Social Security in retirement.” It adds: “These are separate benefits and neither affects the other.”

TRS’s Fall 2026 newsletter adds a point about federal income tax: “TRS pension benefits are combined with your Social Security benefit and all other sources of income to determine how much of your Social Security benefit gets taxed at the federal level.”

Two federal provisions that reduced some Social Security benefits are gone: the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). The Social Security Fairness Act, approved January 5, 2025, was passed “to repeal the Government pension offset and windfall elimination provisions”. It applies “with respect to monthly insurance benefits payable under title II of the Social Security Act for months after December 2023.”

Before the repeal, the WEP could lower the Social Security benefit of a person who also received a pension “based in whole or in part upon his or her earnings for service which did not constitute ‘employment’” as the Social Security Act defines it (42 U.S.C. 415(a)(7)(A), 2023 edition). As we read it, the repeal matters most to educators with service that was not covered by Social Security, such as Medicare-only service (section 1) or a job in another state that was not covered. Ask SSA how it applies to your own benefit.

If you start Social Security before full retirement age and keep working, the earnings test in section 3 counts your wages, not your TRS pension (section 4).

3. The 2026 earnings test before full retirement age

If you start Social Security retirement benefits before full retirement age and also work, SSA may hold back some of your benefits. SSA’s notice for 2026 says: “We withhold Social Security benefits when a beneficiary under the NRA has earnings more than the applicable retirement earnings test exempt amount.” NRA, normal retirement age, is the notice’s term for full retirement age.

SSA’s notice of November 3, 2025 (90 FR 49047) sets these figures for 2026:

In SSA’s own words:

• “The lower annual exempt amount is $24,480 under the retirement earnings test.” Above it, “we withhold $1 in benefits for every $2 of earnings over the annual exempt amount.”
• “The higher annual exempt amount is $65,160 under the retirement earnings test.” It applies “in the year in which a person attains NRA, but only for earnings in months before such attainment.” For those months, “we withhold $1 in benefits for every $3 of earnings over the annual exempt amount for months before NRA.”
• At full retirement age the test stops. SSA’s manual says: “Effective 1/2000, the ET no longer applies to a beneficiary beginning in the month they attain FRA.” (ET is the earnings test; FRA is full retirement age.)

When is full retirement age? SSA’s notice says: “The NRA is age 66 for those born in 1943–54. It gradually increases to age 67 for those born in 1960 or later.”

What happens to the months SSA withholds? Its manual says: “A beneficiary will receive crediting months for any month they were in full or partial work deduction due to excess earnings under the AET.” (AET is the annual earnings test.) It lists what SSA’s staff must tell beneficiaries under full retirement age, including: “Crediting months will result in a higher monthly benefit.” and “A higher monthly benefit due to crediting months will be realized at FRA.” (POMS RS 02501.021). Ask SSA what this would mean for your own benefit.

4. Which earnings count, and which do not

SSA’s regulation says earnings “includes the sum of your wages for services rendered in a taxable year, plus your net earnings from self-employment for the taxable year” (20 CFR 404.429(a)). Wages count before deductions: “Wages include the gross amount of your wages rather than the net amount paid after deductions by your employer” (404.429(c)).

Wages from any employer count, including work that is not covered by Social Security. SSA’s operating manual lists “Wages from non-covered employment performed in the United States” (POMS RS 02505.005). As we read these rules, pay from part-time W-2 tutoring is wages, so it counts too.

Your TRS pension does not count. SSA’s manual says: “Do not count bona fide pension payments.” (POMS RS 02505.240, item 57). TRS’s Fall 2026 newsletter says the same about its own pension: “Your TRS pension benefits are NOT counted as earnings for Social Security earnings limits.”

If you start Social Security partway through a year and are under full retirement age all that year, SSA counts your earnings for the whole year. Its manual says: “If under FRA, count the beneficiary’s earnings for all months of their taxable year to determine excess earnings even though they may not be entitled to benefits during all the months of that year” (POMS RS 02501.021). As we read it, if you retire from teaching and start Social Security in the same year, school pay you earned earlier that year counts toward that year’s annual limit. Your grace year may use a monthly test instead (section 5).

SSA’s manual also has a line for teachers: “Count teachers pay in period for which paid if received in a nonwork month.” (POMS RS 02505.240, item 78). Ask SSA how this applies to your last school paychecks.

TRS’s own rules are a separate question

TRS’s rules for working after retirement are not the Social Security earnings test. TRS’s one-page summary of those rules (plan provisions as of July 1, 2026) says: “There may be limitations placed on earnings by the Social Security Administration.” TRS’s own rules depend on who you work for, and they are different for members who retired by disability. Our guide to TRS’s return-to-work rules covers them. Confirm your own situation with TRS.

5. Your grace year: the monthly test

Your grace year can work differently. SSA’s regulation says it will not reduce your benefits for any month in which you “Had a non-service month in your grace year”. A non-service month is one in which, while entitled to benefits, you “Do not perform services for wages greater than the monthly exempt amount set for that month” and do not work in self-employment (20 CFR 404.435(a)). SSA’s operating manual puts it this way: pay full benefits for any month the beneficiary “neither earns wages higher than the monthly exempt amount nor performs substantial services in self-employment.” (POMS RS 02501.021). The regulation adds one more condition, about work outside the United States.

For 2026, the monthly amount is $2,040 for people who reach full retirement age after 2026: “The monthly exempt amounts under the OASDI retirement earnings test for tax years ending in calendar year 2026 will be $2,040”. For people who reach full retirement age in 2026, the same notice sets a monthly amount of $5,430: “and $5,430 for those who attain NRA in 2026.”

The grace year follows your Social Security, not your last school day. The regulation defines it as “the first taxable year in which the beneficiary has a non-service month”, counting “in or after the month in which the beneficiary is entitled to a retirement, auxiliary, or survivor’s benefit”. As we read it, if you retire from teaching in May and start Social Security in a later year, your grace year comes later too.

After the grace year, the yearly test applies again. The regulation’s example says: “However, in the years that follow, up to the year of full retirement age, only the annual earnings test will be applied”. SSA can tell you whether a given year is your grace year, so treat the monthly test as something that may apply to you.

6. What the limit means in tutoring hours

The figures below divide SSA’s 2026 annual limit of $24,480, the limit before full retirement age, by an hourly pay rate, for readers under full retirement age for all of 2026. They do not predict the hours you would be offered, and they are not a benefit calculation. Available hours depend on student demand and schedule fit.

SpecialEdResource’s starting pay is $23/hour, W-2. All tutors can earn a 10% performance bonus in any pay period when they tutor at least 10 hours and turn in session notes on time. In a pay period that earns the bonus, the rate works out to $25.30 an hour.

The right-hand column applies only if every pay period earns the bonus. In a pay period that does not, every hour is paid at $23, so the real figure falls between the two columns. This section converts only that limit into hours. The $2,040 amount for a grace-year month (section 5) and the $65,160 amount for the year you reach full retirement age (section 3) are given in dollars only.

SSA counts wages from every job, so other work leaves less room under the limit. Nothing here means a particular schedule keeps you under it: SSA applies the test to your actual earnings before full retirement age. For your own figures, ask SSA.

7. 2027 figures

The amounts on this page are SSA’s figures for 2026, for “tax years ending in calendar year 2026”. SSA sets each new year’s amounts in its yearly “Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations” notice in the Federal Register, published in the fall; the notice for 2026 came out on November 3, 2025. This guide does not list 2027 amounts. For 2027, use SSA’s notice for 2027 once it is published, or ask SSA.