Many retirees in the United States decide to continue working for a while because their Social Security is not enough. This is possible as long as the benefit is a retirement benefit, although there is a downside. If you go over a certain dollar limit you will have to pay a penalty, which is part of your Social Security. So, the quick and short answer is that you can continue to work, but with certain limitations.
Those limitations have nothing to do with the number of hours. The hours worked do not matter as long as you do not exceed the established economic amount. Therefore, the maximum number of hours you can work is directly related to the dollars you charge per hour. If you charge too much per hour, you will be able to work fewer hours before they take away part of your Social Security amount.
What is the limit on working hours and Social Security at the same time?
As mentioned above, the number of hours you work is not as important as the amount you earn from them. In this sense, your Social Security number will continue to work the same, but you will have a penalty. If you earn more than $19,506 annually, your benefit amount will go down by $1 for every $2 over that amount.
With this in mind, you can calculate how many hours you can work before they take away part of your Social Security benefit. For example, if you are working at a place where you are paid $15 an hour, you will not be able to work more than 4 hours a day, since you would have to pay a good part of your benefit. This is done when we apply for retirement at age 62, i.e. Early Retirement Age.
Does working after Full Retirement Age reduce my benefit?
There is an exception to this whole system of working and collecting Social Security at the same time. When you work after you apply for Full Retirement Age (FRA), currently at age 67, you have no penalty. Therefore, you can work as many hours as you want and earn as much money as you want. Although it is true that at that age very few people continue to work full time.
Therefore, if you work before reaching Full Retirement Age, your Social Security will be reduced according to your income. But after you reach FRA, there are no limits to tell you how much money you can earn at most.