Do Mississippi teachers pay Social Security? PERS and the 2026 earnings limit

1. Do Mississippi teachers pay into Social Security?

The U.S. Department of Education lists Mississippi among the states where public school teachers are covered by Social Security. Its National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) sorts the states on a map into three groups: states whose teachers have Social Security coverage, states whose teachers do not, and states where coverage is mixed by school district. NCES places Mississippi in the first group. NCES also notes that a teacher’s eligibility for coverage depends on the state and the school district where the teacher works.

Read this as the general picture for the state, not a statement about your own record. To check your own record, ask SSA.

PERS, the state’s public retirement system, also has a role in Social Security coverage for public employers. PERS says: “The Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) is the State Social Security Administrator (SSSA) for the state of Mississippi’s Section 218 Agreement.” Section 218 is the part of federal law that lets state and local governments bring their employees under Social Security; in PERS’s words, “Since January 1, 1951, Section 218 of the Social Security Act has made Social Security coverage available to state and local government employees”. PERS adds: “The agency is responsible for administering Section 218 voluntary Social Security coverage for public employers in Mississippi.”

PERS itself was created in 1952 as the supplemental half of a two-part system. Its own history (Summer 2016) says a group of state employees asked the 1952 Legislature for “a two-part retirement system (i) Social Security coverage for employees of the state and its political subdivisions and their dependents” and a supplemental state plan, which “is known today as the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi (PERS)”. Governor Fielding Wright signed the bill on April 15, 1952.

For teachers, SSA’s operating manual lists a special provision: “Mississippi teachers were deemed to be State employees and have the same coverage as State employees for services performed after February 28, 1951” and before October 1, 1959. It explains: “This provision validated the coverage of teachers employed by the school district, but reported erroneously as State employees.” (POMS SL 30001.370.) The federal law behind it is a 1960 act, Public Law 86-778, noted in the U.S. Code under 42 U.S.C. 418. That is history, not a statement about every teacher today.

2. A PERS pension and Social Security

PERS presents Social Security as part of a member’s retirement, beside the PERS pension. Its New Member Guide says: “Your defined benefit with PERS will provide one important leg of retirement security.” It continues: “In addition, a strong retirement strategy includes Social Security and personal savings.” The guide does not say what any one member will receive from Social Security; SSA can tell you what your own record shows.

Two federal provisions that reduced some Social Security benefits are gone: the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). Public Law 118-273, the Social Security Fairness Act, was approved January 5, 2025. It is an Act “To amend title II of the Social Security Act to repeal the Government pension offset and windfall elimination provisions.” Its changes apply with respect to “monthly insurance benefits payable under title II of the Social Security Act for months after December 2023.”

As we read the law, the repeal matters most to people whose pension came at least partly from work that Social Security did not cover, such as years of teaching in a state whose public school teachers are not covered. Ask SSA how the change applies to your own benefit.

If you start Social Security before full retirement age and keep working, the earnings test in section 3 counts your wages. As we read SSA’s rules, it does not count your PERS pension (section 4).

Mississippi income tax on Social Security and retirement income

The Mississippi Department of Revenue’s instructions for 2025 individual income tax returns, the newest it had posted when we checked, say: “Social Security benefits, Railroad Retirement benefits, and retirement income from federal, state, and private retirement systems are exempt in total.”

The same paragraph lists exceptions: “Pensions and annuities that are taxable as early or excess distributions under the Federal Internal Revenue Code (see Federal Form 5329) do not qualify for exemption from Mississippi income tax.” It also says: “Separation pay is not retirement income and does not qualify for exemption.” And: “Deferred compensation plan distributions received prior to attainment of retirement age and/or service requirements are taxable for Mississippi purposes”. As we read the instructions, the exemption is for retirement income, not for wages from a job. Ask the Department of Revenue about your own return.

3. The 2026 earnings test before full retirement age

If you start Social Security retirement benefits before full retirement age and also work, SSA may hold back some of your benefits. SSA’s notice for 2026 says: “We withhold Social Security benefits when a beneficiary under the NRA has earnings more than the applicable retirement earnings test exempt amount.” NRA, normal retirement age, is the notice’s term for full retirement age.

SSA’s notice of November 3, 2025 (90 FR 49047) sets these figures for 2026:

The earnings test applies only before full retirement age, and it is not for Social Security disability benefits: if you get Social Security disability insurance, or a widow(er)’s or child’s benefit because you are disabled, ask SSA before you take any job.

In SSA’s own words:

• “The lower annual exempt amount is $24,480 under the retirement earnings test.” Above it: “For all other beneficiaries under NRA, we withhold $1 in benefits for every $2 of earnings over the annual exempt amount.”
• “The higher annual exempt amount is $65,160 under the retirement earnings test.” It applies “in the year in which a person attains NRA, but only for earnings in months before such attainment.” For those months, “we withhold $1 in benefits for every $3 of earnings over the annual exempt amount for months before NRA.”
• At full retirement age the test stops. SSA’s operating manual says: “Effective 1/2000, the ET no longer applies to a beneficiary beginning in the month they attain FRA.” (ET is the earnings test; FRA is full retirement age; POMS RS 02501.021.)

When is full retirement age? SSA’s notice says: “The NRA is age 66 for those born in 1943–54. It gradually increases to age 67 for those born in 1960 or later.” That is Social Security’s age. PERS’s own retirement rules are a separate matter, covered in our PERS guide.

4. Which earnings count, and which do not

SSA counts wages before deductions. Its operating manual starts a year’s earnings with “Gross wages for services rendered in taxable year” (POMS RS 02505.001), and its regulation says: “Wages include the gross amount of your wages rather than the net amount paid after deductions by your employer” (20 CFR 404.429).

As we read SSA’s rules, wages from every job count together, including part-time tutoring pay. Pay from SpecialEdResource is W-2 pay, and SpecialEdResource withholds your share of Social Security and Medicare from it.

Your PERS pension does not count. SSA’s manual says: “Do not count bona fide pension payments.” (POMS RS 02505.240, item 57). As we read SSA’s rules, that covers a PERS service retirement benefit.

If you start Social Security partway through a year and are under full retirement age all that year, SSA counts your earnings for the whole year. Its manual says: “If under FRA, count the beneficiary’s earnings for all months of their taxable year” (POMS RS 02501.021). As we read it, if you retire from teaching and start Social Security in the same year, school pay you earned earlier that year counts toward that year’s annual limit. Your grace year may use a monthly test instead (section 5).

SSA’s manual also has a line for teachers: “Count teachers pay in period for which paid if received in a nonwork month.” (POMS RS 02505.240, item 78). Ask SSA how this applies to your last school paychecks.

PERS’s own rules are a separate question

Social Security’s earnings test is not a PERS rule, and PERS’s rules for working after retirement are not SSA’s. Our guide to PERS’s return-to-work rules covers them in full. The main points:

If you plan any job in your first 30 days after retiring, ask PERS first (section 1 of our PERS guide). PERS’s guide “Thinking of Returning to Work?” (revised September 9, 2024; its break period and options are out of date since July 1, 2026) says: “Taking a job with a non-PERS-covered employer is permissible for PERS retirees, but taking a job with a PERS-covered employer while remaining retired has stipulations that must be thoroughly understood by the retiree and the employer.” Those stipulations are about PERS-covered employers, which are public employers such as Mississippi public schools, state agencies, universities and community colleges. Work for a PERS-covered employer still counts when you do it through a private company, a staffing agency or as a contract worker; to work for one as a true independent contractor, PERS must approve it first. PERS’s rule says “Whether a retiree has been reemployed with a PERS covered agency, directly or indirectly, is a question of fact to be determined by PERS.” If you are a PERS disability retiree, different rules apply. Until your disability benefit converts to a service retirement benefit (at age 60 under the Age-Limited Plan, or at the end of the temporary period under the tiered plan), PERS limits what you may earn from all work, not only work for PERS-covered employers, and you must send PERS a copy of your federal income tax return each year, within 30 days after it is due. PERS’s guide also says: “Disability retirees cannot be reemployed in the same general position from which they retired or in a position with similar job requirements.” Ask PERS before you take any job. Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377.

Since July 1, 2026, if you are a service retiree, PERS requires you to take a break of at least 30 consecutive days from your effective retirement date before you work for a PERS-covered employer in any way, and you may not have a pre-arranged agreement to go back. If you work for a PERS-covered employer during the break, or under a pre-arranged agreement, PERS’s rule says the payments you received must be repaid and the retirement is negated. Before that date the break was 90 days, and some older PERS handbooks and guides still say 90. If you worked on a school contract of less than 12 months and retired at the end of the school year, PERS’s rule for service retirees is later: you may not go back to work with a PERS-covered educational institution until 30 consecutive calendar days after the next school year begins. The ways to work for a PERS-covered employer after that break, and keep your benefit, are in our PERS guide.

5. Your grace year: the monthly test

Your grace year can work differently. SSA’s regulation says: “We will not reduce your benefits on account of excess earnings for any month in which you, the beneficiary” meet its conditions. The main one is a non-service month: a month in which you “Do not perform services for wages greater than the monthly exempt amount set for that month” (20 CFR 404.435). The regulation has other conditions too, including one about self-employment.

For 2026, the monthly amount is $2,040 for people who reach full retirement age after 2026: “The monthly exempt amounts under the OASDI retirement earnings test for tax years ending in calendar year 2026 will be $2,040”. For people who reach full retirement age in 2026, the same notice sets a monthly amount of $5,430: “and $5,430 for those who attain NRA in 2026.”

Which year is your grace year? The regulation says: “A beneficiary’s initial grace year is the first taxable year in which the beneficiary has a non-service month”. As we read SSA’s rules, if you retire from teaching and start Social Security in the same year, the annual test counts that year’s school pay, and the monthly test is what can protect the months after you stop working, if that year is your grace year.

After the grace year, the yearly test applies again. The regulation says: “However, in the years that follow, up to the year of full retirement age, only the annual earnings test will be applied”. SSA can tell you whether a given year is your grace year, so treat the monthly test as something that may apply to you.

6. What the limit means in tutoring hours

The figures below divide SSA’s 2026 annual limit of $24,480, the limit before full retirement age, by an hourly pay rate, for readers who get Social Security retirement benefits and are under full retirement age for all of 2026. They do not predict the hours you would be offered, and they are not a benefit calculation. Available hours depend on student demand and schedule fit.

SpecialEdResource’s starting pay is $23/hour, W-2. All tutors can earn a 10% performance bonus in any pay period when they tutor at least 10 hours and turn in session notes on time. In a pay period that earns the bonus, the rate works out to $25.30 an hour.

The right-hand column applies only if every pay period earns the bonus. In a pay period that does not, every hour is paid at $23, so the real figure falls between the two columns. This section converts only that limit into hours. The $2,040 amount for a grace-year month (section 5) and the $65,160 amount for the year you reach full retirement age (section 3) are given in dollars only.

SSA counts wages from every job, so other work leaves less room under the limit. Nothing here means a particular schedule keeps you under it: SSA applies the test to your actual earnings before full retirement age. For your own figures, ask SSA.

7. When the 2027 figures come out

The amounts on this page are SSA’s figures for 2026, for “tax years ending in calendar year 2026”. SSA sets each new year’s amounts in its yearly “Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations” notice in the Federal Register; the notice for 2026 came out on November 3, 2025. In a year when SSA gives a cost-of-living increase, federal law tells SSA’s Commissioner to “determine and publish in the Federal Register on or before November 1 of the calendar year” the new exempt amounts (42 U.S.C. 403(f)(8)(A)).

When we checked the Federal Register on October 14, 2026, SSA had not yet published its notice for 2027. This guide does not list 2027 amounts. For 2027, use SSA’s notice once it is published, or ask SSA.