New Proposal Would Let Some Workers Collect Full Social Security Benefits at 60

Some Americans in physically demanding jobs could become eligible for full Social Security retirement benefits at age 60 under a new bill introduced in Congress.

Representative Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, has introduced the Blue Collar Social Security Fairness Act. The measure would carve out an exception to current Social Security rules for workers who have spent enough of their careers in physically demanding jobs, letting them receive unreduced retirement benefits seven years before the current full retirement age.

“Michiganders who work with their hands shouldn’t be forced to wait until their bodies give out to retire,” Stevens said in a statement to CNBC. “If we want to honor the dignity of work in this country, we need to lower the retirement age for physical laborers.”

Under existing rules, workers can generally start claiming retirement benefits at 62, though doing so can reduce payments by as much as 30 percent compared with waiting until full retirement age, now 67.

Newsweek has contacted Stevens' office for comment via email.

How the Measure Would Work

The proposal would create a separate path to full Social Security retirement benefits for people who have spent substantial time in physically demanding occupations. It would also prevent the permanent reduction that usually applies when benefits are claimed early.

According to the bill, jobs involving major physical demands that could reasonably be expected to limit a worker’s ability to keep doing that kind of work at older ages would qualify. A worker would earn credit for a given year only if they spent at least eight months of that year in a qualifying job.

There would be two ways to qualify for benefits at age 60. One option would be to build up 20 base points, with workers earning one point for each qualifying year, meaning 20 years in physically demanding work would be enough.

Another route would be to reach 15 age-adjusted points. Under that formula, each qualifying year from ages 18 through 34 would count for 0.5 points; ages 35 through 44 would count for 1 point; ages 45 through 54 would count for 1.5 points; and each qualifying year from age 55 onward would count for 2 points.

That structure would give later-career physical work more weight, helping workers reach age-60 eligibility faster.

Who Could Be Covered?

Stevens has pointed to construction, roofing, nursing and manufacturing as examples of occupations the bill could cover if it becomes law. Within a year of enactment, the Social Security Administration and the Labor and Health and Human Services departments would have to publish a list of physically demanding occupations and update it every three years.

The measure could affect millions of workers nationwide. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 29.1 percent of civilian workers were in jobs requiring a medium strength level, 6.2 percent were in heavy-strength jobs and 0.7 percent were in very-heavy-strength jobs in 2025. Combined, that equals 36 percent, or more than one in three workers in the survey.

Research has also suggested that physically demanding work can make it harder to stay employed into the 60s. An analysis from the Economic Policy Institute and the Schwartz Center found that 31.6 percent of workers ages 55 to 64 were in physically demanding jobs, rising to 41.1 percent among those without a college degree.

The researchers defined those roles as jobs requiring “lots of physical effort” all or most of the time.

Will Congress Approve It?

Because the bill has only just been introduced, it is too soon to know whether it will gain enough support to clear Congress. Still, recent efforts to change Social Security benefits have not always stalled at the same legislative hurdles.

The Social Security Fairness Act, which repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset that had reduced benefits for millions of workers, passed the House 327-75 and the Senate 76-20 before being signed into law in January 2025. Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she first introduced a version of that proposal with the late Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California in 2005, nearly two decades before it became law.

Funding is also likely to be a major issue in any debate, as lawmakers continue searching for a solution to Social Security’s looming financing shortfall.

Social Security’s 2026 trustees project that the retirement and survivors trust fund can pay full scheduled benefits until the fourth quarter of 2032, after which ongoing revenue would cover 78 percent if Congress takes no action. The combined retirement and disability funds are projected to cover full scheduled benefits until 2034.