Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI)
Summary definition: OASDI is the federal Social Security program funded by payroll taxes that provides financial benefits to retirees, disabled individuals, and the families of deceased workers.
What is OASDI tax?
The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program is the federal Social Security program that provides retirement, survivor, and disability benefits to eligible individuals and their dependents.
Administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA), OASDI uses two trust funds to store and disburse amounts collected from the Social Security portion of Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) payroll taxes:
- Old-age and survivors insurance: For retirees and survivors of insured workers who died.
- Disability insurance: For insured employees who are unable to work due to physical or mental disabilities.
Key takeaways
- OASDI represents the specific portion of your FICA payroll taxes that directly funds retirement and disability insurance rather than Medicare.
- OASDI payroll taxes are shared between employers and employees, except for the self-employed, who pay the whole tax themselves, and certain non-resident workers, who are exempt.
- The 2026 wage base limit for OASDI taxes is the first $184,500 of an employee’s annual wages.
OASDI eligibility and benefits
Generally speaking, eligibility for OASDI benefits depends on how long an employee has worked and their accumulation of "work credits."
After an employee has accumulated 40 credits (the equivalent of 10 years of work), they’re classified as fully insured and entitled to benefit payments. Survivor and disability benefits, though, may require fewer credits depending on the worker's age.
In 2026, an employee earns one work credit for every $1,890 in wages, but this amount changes annually. Moreover, employees can only earn up to four credits in a single year.
| Recipient type | Eligibility | Benefits |
| Retirees | The retiree must have earned at least 40 work credits and be at least 62 years old. | Based on the worker’s lifetime earnings.* |
| Survivors | The survivor must have been in a relationship with an eligible employee at the time of the employee’s death. | Based on the deceased’s earnings* and relationship with the survivor. |
| Disabled | Uses a Recent Work Test and Duration Test, which gauges eligibility based on the worker’s age and length of career. | Based on the worker’s lifetime earnings.* |
*Uses an average of indexed monthly earnings that summarizes up to 35 years of a worker’s wages.
OASDI vs. Medicare vs. FICA
While the terms OASDI and Social Security are interchangeable, they’re only one of the two components that make up FICA taxes, the other being Medicare.
Maintaining accurate filings means knowing exactly how the IRS expects you to split up and report each of the two FICA taxes.
| Primary purpose | Details | |
| OASDI / Social Security | Funds monthly benefits for retirees, survivors, and workers with disabilities. | Capped at $184,500 for 2026 (i.e., withholding stops when this limit is reached) |
| Medicare | Provides health insurance coverage for seniors (65+) and individuals with specific disabilities. | No cap, but high earners ($200,000 or more) pay an additional 0.9% tax (not matched by employer). |
| FICA | The overarching federal bundle that funds both Social Security and Medicare. | 15.3% rate is typically split evenly (i.e., 7.65% each) between employers and employees. |
Supplemental Security Income (SSI), conversely, is a separate SSA program that focuses solely on those with limited income and resources who are blind, aged 65 or older, or have a qualifying disability.
In other words, those who are eligible for SSI are probably also eligible for OASDI, but those eligible for OASDI aren’t necessarily eligible for SSI.
OASDI payroll tax rate
The 2026 tax rate is 12.40% of an employee’s gross pay, with the amount split evenly between employees and employers. Thus, employees pay only 6.20% of their gross wages to OASDI, while employers must pay the other 6.20%.
2026 OASDI tax limits
For 2026, only the first $184,500 of an employee’s annual wages are subject to OASDI taxes. Also known as the Social Security wage base limit, after an employee’s annual wages exceed that amount, they’re no longer required to pay OASDI taxes for the rest of that year.
The SSA adjusts the federal wage base limit every year to keep pace with changes to the national average wage index. For example, in 2025, the wage base limit was $176,100, while in 2024 it was $168,600.
Self-employed and non-resident OASDI taxes
OASDI taxes are mandatory, so the self-employed must pay them too. But instead of splitting the 12.4% per FICA regulations, self-employed workers must pay the full amount themselves per Self-Employed Contributions Act (SECA) regulations.
Non-resident citizens are also required to pay OASDI taxes, except for those with certain work visas:
- A-visas: Employees of foreign governments and their families.
- D-visas: Crew members on a foreign ship or aircraft working for a foreign employer or a U.S. ship or aircraft outside the U.S. when the work occurred.
- F-visas, J-visas, M-visas, and Q-visas: Professors, researchers, students, etc.
- G-visas: Employees of an international organization working in the U.S.
- H-visas: A Filipino citizen working in Guam, or a non-immigrant individual temporarily admitted to the U.S. for agricultural labor.
