Taxes on your pay
What is OASDI on my paycheck?
The strangest-looking line on a US pay stub is also one of the oldest: five letters covering retirement, survivor and disability insurance.
The short answer
OASDI stands for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance - Social Security. It takes 6.2% of your wages up to $184,500 in 2026, a maximum of $11,439 for the year, and your employer pays a matching 6.2%. Once your wages pass the cap the line stops until January.
What each letter pays for
| Part | Who it covers | Share of the tax |
|---|---|---|
| OA - Old-Age | Retired workers and their spouses | The large majority, paid from the OASI trust fund |
| S - Survivors | Widows, widowers and dependent children of workers who die | Also from the OASI trust fund |
| DI - Disability Insurance | Workers who become unable to work before retirement age, and their dependents | A separate DI trust fund, funded by a small slice of the same rate |
Payroll splits the tax between two trust funds, but the employee rate is a single 6.2% and stubs never break it down.
Paying it also earns it. Social Security credits are recorded against your Social Security number and eventually decide whether you qualify for a benefit and how large it is - the calculation uses your highest 35 years of indexed earnings. A year with no OASDI withheld is a year that counts as zero in that average.
The names payroll gives it
All of these are the same tax: OASDI, Fed OASDI/EE (EE marks the employee share, ER the employer's), SS, SOC SEC, FICA-SS, OASDI/Disability - EE. If your stub shows a single FICA line at 7.65%, it is Social Security and Medicare combined. The pay stub decoder lists the rest of the abbreviations.
What it costs across a year
| Annual wages | OASDI withheld | Employer pays | Per biweekly check |
|---|---|---|---|
| $35,000 | $2,170 | $2,170 | $83.46 |
| $50,000 | $3,100 | $3,100 | $119.23 |
| $75,000 | $4,650 | $4,650 | $178.85 |
| $120,000 | $7,440 | $7,440 | $286.15 |
| $184,500 | $11,439 | $11,439 | $439.96 |
| $220,000 | $11,439 | $11,439 | $439.96 |
2026 rate and $184,500 wage base. Above the cap the annual figure is fixed at $11,439 no matter how much you earn, which is why the tax is regressive at the top.
The wage base moves every year
The cap is indexed to average wage growth, so it climbs most years while the 6.2% rate has been unchanged since 1990. For 2026 it is $184,500. Earnings above the cap are still subject to Medicare, which has no ceiling at all - see the FICA guide for how the two fit together.
Two overpayment traps
Two jobs in one year. Each employer withholds OASDI on the wages it paid you, with no knowledge of the other, so changing jobs mid-year can push your total past $11,439. The excess is recovered as a credit on your Form 1040, not by asking either employer. One employer, two payroll systems. An acquisition or a payroll migration mid-year can restart the year-to-date count; check the final stub of the year against $11,439 before filing.
Neither trap is fixable through Form W-4, because the W-4 only controls federal income tax. If you want to see what it does control, the W-4 calculator fills in the form line by line, and the paycheck calculator shows OASDI, Medicare, federal and state tax side by side for any salary.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What does OASDI mean on a pay stub?+
Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance - the formal name for Social Security. Payroll systems print it as OASDI, Fed OASDI/EE, SS, SOC SEC or FICA-SS depending on the provider. It is 6.2% of your wages up to the annual cap, and your employer pays the same amount again.
Can I opt out of OASDI?+
Almost nobody can. Narrow exemptions exist for certain student employees working at the school they attend, some non-resident students and scholars on F, J, M and Q visas, members of specific recognized religious sects, and a few state and local government workers covered by their own pension instead. There is no election an ordinary employee can make.
Why did OASDI stop coming out of my paycheck?+
Because your wages passed $184,500 for the year. Social Security only applies to that first slice, so the line disappears for the rest of the year and your take-home pay rises by 6.2% of gross. It restarts on the first paycheck of January.
What is the most OASDI I can pay in a year?+
$11,439 in 2026, which is 6.2% of the $184,500 wage base. Your employer pays the same again. If two employers each withheld up to the cap, you overpaid, and the excess comes back as a credit on your Form 1040.
Is OASDI the same as FICA?+
OASDI is one of the two taxes FICA collects. The other is Medicare at 1.45%. Some stubs show a single FICA line of 7.65% instead of splitting them, and some show FICA-SS and FICA-MED.
Does OASDI come out of bonuses and overtime?+
Yes. Social Security applies to essentially all wages, including overtime, bonuses, commissions and reported tips, until your year-to-date wages reach the cap. Bonuses are withheld for income tax at a flat supplemental rate, but FICA is charged the ordinary way.
Sources
- Social Security Administration, trust fund basics (OASI and DI)
- Social Security Administration, 2026 COLA fact sheet
- Social Security Administration, contribution and benefit base
- IRS, topic no. 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding rates
- IRS Publication 15 (Circular E), employer's tax guide
General information for planning, not tax or legal advice. Federal figures are checked against the cited IRS, SSA and Department of Labor documents.
Read next
Related guides and tools
- What is FICA tax?
The 7.65% pair on every US paycheck: what Social Security and Medicare take, and where each one stops.
- How to read a pay stub
Every section of a pay stub explained, plus a decoder for the abbreviations payroll systems use.
- How much tax is taken out of a paycheck
Every tax on a US pay stub with 2026 numbers: federal brackets, FICA and state ranges.
- Why is my paycheck less than usual?
Ten reasons a check shrinks between one payday and the next, and how to tell which one hit you.