The Earnings Suspense File

Have you ever heard of the file mentioned in the post title? According to a Seattle Times article titled "Illegal immigrants pay Social Security tax, won't benefit" ...

"Social Security officials keep a record of wages that do not match up with real names and numbers in their system. The record is called the earnings suspense file.

While many Americans believe illegal immigrants don't pay taxes, billions of dollars deducted from paychecks issued to undocumented workers flow to the Social Security Administration (SSA) every year. Those workers almost certainly will never see that money again.

In 2009, the last year for which figures are available, employers reported wages of $72.8 billion for 7.7 million workers who could not be matched to legal Social Security numbers."

Causes me to wonder how much more revenue would be collected if the United States somehow found a way for these immigrants to become citizens. In truth we baby boomers need these immigrants. Unlike our parents we have had small families which means that this next generation of tax payers will not be able to foot the bill for the Medicare and Social Security benefits that we boomers will withdrawing from those systems in the coming years.

---