OASDHI Benefits, Prices, and Wages: Effect of 1967 Benefit Increase

IN MARCH 1968, approximately 24 million Americans were receiving monthly cash benefits under the old-age, survivors, disability, and health insurance (OASDHI) program. Their monthly benefits were 13 percent or more higher than those paid to beneficiaries through January 1968, with the gains resulting from the across-the-board increase provided by t,he 1967 amendments to the Social Security Act. This general increase, which went into effect in February, was the sixth since monthly cash payments were first payable in 1940. Evaluation of these increases is made here to determine to what extent they (1) protect the ret,ired worker against erosion of t.he purchasing power of his OASDHI benefit and (2) allow him to participate in the higher standard of living enjoyed by workers as a result of continuing improvements in industrial productivity. Previously published data needed for analyzing these questions have been updated here.’ The major findings of this review are that: