Gen Z and Social Security has a problem. Gen Z is paying into a retirement program that most of us don’t believe will exist when we get there — and we have very different ideas about how to fix it than the people currently collecting. Here’s what the data actually says.
Will Gen Z actually get Social Security benefits?
The short answer: something. The scary answer: probably not what you’re expecting.
According to the Social Security Board of Trustees’ 2025 Annual Report, the combined trust funds are projected to run dry by 2034. That doesn’t mean Social Security disappears — it means the program can only pay out what it takes in from current payroll taxes. Without legislative action, that translates to an automatic benefit cut of roughly 23% starting around 2033. Not zero. But not what was promised either.
For Gen Z — most of whom won’t retire until the 2060s or 2070s — this matters. A lot. The system they’re funding right now was designed for a demographic reality that no longer exists: fewer workers supporting more retirees for longer. In 2024, the Social Security Administration paid out nearly $1.5 trillion in benefits while collecting less than $1.42 trillion in revenue. That gap doesn’t fix itself.
The trust fund depletion timeline may feel abstract when you’re 23 and just got your first real paycheck. But the money coming out of that check every two weeks is already going to people who retired years before you were born. That’s not a conspiracy — that’s how the program was designed. Whether it holds up long enough to pay you is the actual question.
Why Gen Z distrusts Social Security?
Because the math is in front of them, and it doesn’t add up.
Confidence in Social Security increases with age — older generations are significantly more confident in the program than their younger counterparts. That’s not just a vibe difference. It reflects something real: the people currently collecting have less reason to doubt it. They’re already in the system. Gen Z is being asked to fund it for decades on faith.
The AARP found that only 25% of younger Americans are somewhat or very confident in Social Security’s future. Among 18-24 year olds it stands at just under 30%, and it drops to around 22% among those aged 25-34. Those numbers aren’t just pessimistic — they’re structurally rational. Only 34% of Americans under 30 believe the program will even exist when they retire, the lowest confidence level among all age groups. And 78% of young workers anticipate receiving less than the full scheduled benefits.
There’s also a fairness perception driving the distrust. Nearly 60% of Americans say younger workers are getting a worse deal than today’s retirees. That’s not fringe thinking. It’s majority opinion across age groups. And for Gen Z, who entered adulthood during COVID, are carrying an average of $30,000 in student debt, and can’t afford to buy houses in the cities where the jobs are, the idea of paying more into a system that might not pay out feels like salt in a financial wound that’s already pretty wide open.
More than 60% of Americans say Congress has broken its promises in managing Social Security. Gen Z didn’t make that judgment in a vacuum. They watched it happen.
What does Gen Z actually want to do about Social Security?
This is where it gets genuinely interesting — and where Gen Z breaks hard from the generations ahead of them.
A Cato Institute survey of 2,000 Americans conducted with YouGov asked respondents directly about reform preferences. Nearly half of Americans under 30 support reducing benefits for current and future retirees to address Social Security’s funding shortfall. By contrast, only 6% of Americans age 65 and older agree. That’s not a gap. That’s a chasm. Gen Z is eight times more likely than seniors to support benefit cuts.
The logic tracks. A majority of Americans under 30 say younger workers should be protected from higher taxes, even if doing so reduces benefits for today’s retirees. Meanwhile, nearly 90% of Americans age 65 and older believe current retirees’ benefits should be protected — even if that means higher taxes on younger workers. Both groups are acting in self-interest. The difference is which generation gets to set policy. Right now, it’s not Gen Z.
The nuance matters though. At first glance, Gen Z respondents are nearly as willing as older Americans to support higher payroll taxes to preserve current benefits — 61% of Gen Z and 64% of seniors favor increasing the payroll tax rate from 12.4% to 16.05% to close the funding gap. But that support collapses fast once the actual math gets introduced. When told they’d eventually get back less than they paid in, 60% of Gen Z said they would oppose a tax increase — while a slim majority of seniors would still support it.
In other words: Gen Z isn’t categorically anti-tax. We’re anti-getting-scammed.
Gen Z is also more likely to view Social Security as an anti-poverty program (52%) rather than universal income replacement — the framing preferred by 60% of seniors. That philosophical shift makes younger Americans more open to means-testing (paying benefits only to those who need them), with 50% in support, and to flat-rate payments of $1,800 monthly, which 63% favor.
The reform options on the table — and what Gen Z thinks of each
There’s no shortage of proposed fixes. There is a shortage of political will to pass any of them. Here’s where each option lands with younger Americans:
Raise the payroll tax rate. The Social Security Trustees suggest raising the combined FICA rate from 12.4% to 16.05% immediately, or to 16.67% if Congress waits until 2034. This would hit younger workers the hardest — many already face housing, student loan, and healthcare costs that earlier generations did not. Gen Z shows conditional support for this if the return is guaranteed. Unconditional support? Not really.
Raise the retirement age. Currently set at 67 for anyone born after 1960. Some proposals push it to 69 or 70, citing longer life expectancies. That would reduce the number of years people collect benefits — but not everyone benefits equally from longer life expectancy. Lower-income workers and people in physically demanding jobs often don’t live long enough to benefit from the extra years. Gen Z, which skews toward gig work and service industries, has reason to be skeptical here.
Lift or eliminate the wage cap. Right now, workers and employers each pay 6.2% of wages into Social Security on earnings up to $176,100 in 2025. Above that, contributions stop. Removing the cap for high earners is one of the more popular reform proposals across age groups, though politically it’s a fight. This one resonates with Gen Z’s general orientation toward taxing wealth over taxing labor.
Means-testing benefits. Pay Social Security only to people who actually need it. Controversial — especially among people who spent 40 years paying in expecting a return — but 50% of Gen Z supports this approach. It reframes Social Security from a universal entitlement to a targeted safety net, which is closer to how Gen Z sees it anyway.
A nonpartisan reform commission. The most popular idea that nobody talks about. Seventy-one percent of respondents support a nonpartisan commission to work out a solution. This was essentially how the 1983 reform happened — a bipartisan commission under Alan Greenspan brokered the last major overhaul. It’s not a sexy policy proposal, but it’s the one with the broadest cross-generational support.
The uncomfortable political reality
Gen Z has an opinion on all of this. What it doesn’t have — yet — is the political leverage to do anything about it.
People 65 and older vote at a higher rate than younger Americans, so there’s an incentive for lawmakers to protect retiree benefits even if Social Security remains on an unsustainable long-term course. This isn’t cynicism. It’s electoral math. Politicians protect the constituencies that show up.
The Cato Institute’s polling director Emily Ekins put it plainly: when you give Gen Z information about Social Security and that benefits are going to have to be cut by about a quarter starting in 2033 unless Congress does something, you find a very significant generational divide. The problem is that Gen Z is also, currently, the least informed about how the program actually works — and the least likely to vote. Two facts that compound each other in the worst possible direction.
The original take here is this: Gen Z isn’t disengaged from Social Security — it’s disengaged from a debate it doesn’t believe it gets to win. Young people aren’t skipping the conversation because they don’t care. They’re skipping it because decades of watching lawmakers protect current retirees at every turn has made the outcome feel predetermined. The Cato survey found that informed Gen Z respondents express more support for reform. They just need to believe reforming it is actually possible.
What to do right now, regardless of how Congress votes
Social Security reform is a long game played by people with longer time horizons than yours. While that plays out:
- Treat Social Security as a floor, not a plan. Build around it, not on top of it.
- If your employer offers a 401(k) match, max out the match first — that’s a guaranteed 50-100% return before you’ve invested a single dollar.
- Open a Roth IRA while your income is low. You’re taxed now at a lower rate; withdrawals in retirement are tax-free. If Social Security shrinks, that matters more than ever.
- Keep an eye on reform legislation, especially anything touching the wage cap or retirement age. These changes have real math consequences for what you’ll owe and what you’ll eventually collect.
- If you vote, vote like your retirement depends on it. Because, actually, it does.
Elder poverty has dropped from 35% in 1960 to under 10% today — largely because Social Security exists. That’s worth preserving. The question Gen Z is actually asking isn’t whether Social Security should exist. It’s whether the version we inherit will be worth what we paid for it. Right now, the answer to that depends almost entirely on whether Congress acts before 2033. And whether Gen Z starts showing up to the polls like it has something at stake. We do.
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