Proposal Would Enable Workers in ‘Physically Demanding Jobs’ to Claim Social Security at 60

U.S. Representative Haley Stevens, D-Michigan, Wednesday introduced a bill to lower the claiming age for Social Security benefits for workers in certain physically demanding jobs.

The Blue Collar Social Security Fairness Act is intended to make people working in certain jobs eligible for Social Security at age 60.

The proposal has the potential to increase or accelerate Social Security spending at a time when the Social Security trust funds face financial pressure that could lead to reduced benefit payments for some or all recipients in the future.

The Social Security Administration Board of Trustees’ annual report, published in June, said tax reductions from 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, along with lower fertility rates and reduced immigration shrinking the number of people paying into the trust funds, have contributed to the program having sufficient funding to continue paying full benefits until 2032, which is two years sooner than projected in 2024. Changes to Social Security eligibility, or to the revenues that fund it, would change the date at which cuts could be necessary.

Some retirement security advocates have long argued in favor of targeted benefit improvements for people in low-income and/or physically demanding jobs.

Stevens’ bill does not define what a qualifying physically demanding job would be. Instead, it would require the commissioner of Social Security and the secretaries of the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services to publish a list of eligible occupations within a year of the bill’s passage.

The bill specifies a qualifying job would be considered physically demanding “if the occupation, as a condition of employment, imposes on an individual substantial physical demands that may be reasonably expected to diminish the ability of the individual to perform such occupation, or other occupations imposing substantial physical demands, at an advanced age.”

Going forward, the list of qualifying roles would have to be updated every three years.

The earliest age that a U.S. worker can claim Social Security is 62, though beneficiaries starting at that age receive reduced benefits. Waiting until full retirement age of 67, for anyone born in 1960 or later, garners 100% of the benefits earned. For each year a worker delays claiming Social Security benefits beyond age 67, up to age 70, monthly benefits increase.

Stevens’ bill is intended to benefit blue-collar workers, who generally have a harder time working longer to reach the full or extended benefits milestones.

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

The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines physically demanding jobs as work that requires a level and duration of physical exertion for tasks including sitting, standing, lifting, carrying, reaching, pushing, pulling and climbing. The agency reported in 2025 that 6.2% of the civilian workforce worked in “heavy work strength level” jobs, while 0.7% worked in “very heavy work strength level” jobs.

Stevens’ proposal would require workers to have 20 total years of physically demanding work throughout their careers to qualify for early retirement benefits at age 60. The bill includes a formula to determine who would qualify.