Chick-fil-A Says AI Won’t Take Drive-Thru Orders. At 66, a Part-Time Job Could Still Raise His Social Security Check by Replacing a Low-Earning Year
Chick-fil-A is keeping humans at the drive-thru window, but a 66-year-old working that window part-time may be sitting on a benefit most retirees overlook entirely.
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AI is taking over the world, but not in every corner. Chick-fil-A’s chief executive, Andrew Cathy, says the chain has no plans to hand drive-thru ordering over to AI voice systems. Rivals are testing the technology. “From our experience, we really want that hospitality to be human to human,” he said in an interview.
A 66-year-old working part-time at the window may find the job worth more than the paycheck. Social Security keeps reading his earnings record after he claims, and one modest year of wages can change his benefit.
Social Security can raise a benefit after the first deposit comes when the right conditions line up.
Social Security Counts Only His Best 35 Years
Retirement benefits are built from a worker’s highest 35 years of earnings, adjusted for wage growth. If you worked fewer than 35 years, zeros fill the gaps, and most 35-year records include a few thin years: a first job at 19, a layoff, or time spent caregiving.
A new year of work helps only if it beats the weakest year in that top 35, and if it does, the new year moves in and the weak one drops out.
Say his record includes a year worth $6,000 after wage adjustment. At 66, working about 20 hours weekly, he makes roughly $22,000 for the year.
Switching the weak year for the new one adds $16,000 to his 35-year total. Social Security spreads that across 420 months, which raises his average monthly earnings by about $38.
At that level, the 32% segment of Social Security’s formula applies. His underlying benefit grows by about $12 a month, or roughly $146 a year. The actual increase in his check depends on when he claimed.
That is a small raise. It lasts for life and receives future inflation adjustments. Forecasts put the 2027 COLA at 3.5% to 3.6%, although the official figure has not been announced. Over 20 years, the extra comes to about $2,926 before those increases.
He Can Already Be Collecting Checks
Every year, Social Security reviews the records of beneficiaries with wages reported for the previous year. If the latest year ranks among a person’s highest, the agency recalculates the benefit and pays any increase retroactive to January of the year after the earnings were received.
He does not have to stop benefits or reapply. If his 2026 wages replace a lower year, the higher benefit can be paid retroactively to January 2027 once Social Security processes the earnings record.
One Catch Before FRA
For most people, full retirement age (FRA) is 67. If he is under that age for all of 2026, the earnings test applies. Social Security holds back $1 for every $2 he earns above $24,480 in countable wages or self-employment income.
At $22,000, nothing is withheld. At $30,000, about $2,760 in benefits would be held back. Once he reaches full retirement age, Social Security recalculates to credit withheld months, and the earnings limit disappears.
These two rules run on separate tracks. The same paycheck can trim this year’s checks while for good raising the benefit behind them.
The Record Is Not Frozen
Before he takes a part-time job, he should check three things:
- His Social Security earnings record via my Social Security account, which shows every year on file and identifies zeros or low years a job can replace.
- What the new job will pay. A new year counts only if it beats the weakest year in his top 35.
- Where he stands relative to full retirement age, which determines whether the earnings test could temporarily reduce current checks.
Social Security’s online estimator lets workers enter expected future earnings and see how their projected benefit changes.
The bigger mistake is assuming the record is frozen and overlooking work that could raise his income for life. Working part-time while collecting benefits carries its own tax traps too, which we walked through in a free semi-retirement playbook. Every earnings history is different. Someone with several zero years could gain far more than the $12 in this example, while someone with strong earnings across 35 years may see no change.
The job AI didn’t take could end up replacing one of the 35 years Social Security uses to calculate his check.
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Gerelyn Terzo is the author of dividend investing handbook "Dividend Investing Strategies: How to Have Your Cake & Eat It Too." A veteran financial journalist, she covers agri-finance for outlets like Global AgInvesting and the broader stock market and personal finance for 24/7 Wall Street. She began at CNBC and later helped launch Fox Business in New York. Gerelyn currently resides in Woodland Park, Colorado and dabbles in nature photography as a hobby.
