Social Security an economic engine for Alaska

Frances Perkins was tough as nails. She had to be. She was the first woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet. Perkins was Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Her beat was workers, immigrants, and the creation of Social Security.

She was determined, focused, and did not suffer fools. According to her Wikipedia entry, one time she got in a spat with Alfred P. Sloan, the chairman of the board at General Motors. During a United Auto Workers strike, she phoned Sloan in the middle of the night and called him a "scoundrel and a skunk" for not meeting the union's demands. She said, "You don't deserve to be counted among decent men. You'll go to hell when you die."

Of course, it took that kind of person to push Social Security past the opposition. It was a tough slog with a modest beginning. In 1937 Ernest Ackerman received Social Security's first lump-sum payout. Seventeen cents. But it's a different game now. Nationwide in 2022 Social Security payments to beneficiaries totaled $1.23 trillion.

In October of 2025 the nonprofit, nonpartisan National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) released a report entitled "Quantifying the Economic Impact of Social Security Benefit Spending." Yeah, I know that's an eyes-glaze-over title, but we'll get to the juicy Alaska stuff pretty quick. First, the nationwide picture. In 2023 Social Security:

paid $1.38 trillion in benefits to 67 million beneficiaries in 2023

supported 12.2 million jobs and $804.6 billion in labor income

generated $2.6 trillion in total economic output

Big bucks for sure, but there's more:

"Social Security provides an irreplaceable stabilizing force for the economy, especially during economic downturns," said Tyler Bond, NIRS research director and report co-author. "Because benefits are paid consistently, even when the economy weakens, Social Security helps keep consumer demand steady and supports jobs across the country."

And that Social Security "stabilizing force" is especially important in Alaska, notorious as it is for a seasonal boom-bust economy. Here are some specifics. In 2023,

115,096 residents of Alaska received a total of $2.3 billion in Social Security benefits

The median Social Security retirement benefit received in Alaska was $1,733 per month

The median Social Security disability benefit received was $1,375 per month

So $2.3 billion is a bit hard to envision, like how many bananas or SUVs would that buy? Here's a comparison that might be useful. Visitors to Alaska during 2023-24 generated $3.9 billion in direct visitor spending. That means that Social Security dollars flowing into Alaska equaled about 60% of all the money spent by tourists in Alaska in a year. That's a lot of bananas.

"Yay! Grandpa got his Social Security check and wants to take us out to dinner!" Researchers calculated that all those Social Security recipients going out to restaurants in Alaska spent enough in 2023 to pay the salaries of 1,109 restaurant employees.

"Uh-oh. Grandpa ate too much and isn't feeling so good. He wants to go to the emergency room." In 2023 the economic impact of Social Security benefits spent on medical care in Alaska hospitals was enough to support 541 hospital workers for a year. Meanwhile, Grandpa has recovered nicely, thank you.

"Grandpa is feeling better and wants to take us shopping for new clothes. Can we go? Pleeease?" They did go, and that contributed to Social Security benefits spent in "general merchandise stores" in Alaska that altogether was enough to support 429 retail workers for a full year.

So, in sum, Social Security plays an incredibly important role in the health of our economies, from the national perspective all the way down to individual recipients. Moreover, contrary to scary assertions you may have heard along the way, it is going to be around for a long time. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,

"After 2034, Social Security could still pay roughly 81% of scheduled benefits using its tax income even if policymakers took no steps to shore up the program. Those who claim that Social Security won't be around at all when today's young adults retire and that young workers will receive no benefits either misunderstand or misrepresent the trustees' projections."

Yep. There's enough for Grandpa, the kids, and the grandkids. The fix is simple in order to keep Social Security paying at 100% into the future. "Scrap the cap." This year the cap is $176,100. Once you reach that amount in wages, you stop paying into Social Security for the rest of the year. Remove the payroll wage cap so that the rich pay their share of Social Security all year just as the rest of us do. Fair and equitable. Problem solved.

Lawrence D. Weiss is a UAA Professor of Public health, emeritus, creator of the UAA Master of Public health program, and author of several books and numerous articles.