It’s always been a scandal: most people don’t know that the rich don’t pay their fair share into Social Security. The payroll tax that funds Social Security is capped at $90,000 per year—every bit of income above that level escapes the payroll tax.

So, today, The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece (subscription required) that points out that the growing divide between rich and poor is a factor in the eroding tax base available to pay into Social Security. As the articles observes:

Social Security payroll taxes are levied on wages up to a certain cap, currently $90,000 a year, which rises annually with the average wage. In the past 25 years, a growing share of income has been paid to people who earn more than the cap. This increasing concentration of income at the upper strata of society is an important reason why, from 1980 through 2000, taxable payroll fell to 83% of wages of contributing workers from 90%.

I still maintain that we shouldn’t get all in a tizzy about the so-called “crisis” in Social Security—it isn’t. We can make fixes in the program over time that will keep it solid and solvent. One fix is a no-brainer—lift the cap and make the rich pay a fair share towards the program.