Social Security

I noticed a major part of my costs is social security. I know that having more workers and less unemployed people brings down the costs but should I also bring the payment down and what'd be the disadvantage to it?

I have the social security target at 80%, but I was wondering what would happen if I brought it down to 10%. Would that hurt my economy? I would be saving social security costs by 70% which is 2.5 billion a month.

Remember social security costs are based off your average low-level worker wage as well. So decreasing wages overall also decreases your social security payments. However there are more disadvantages to low wages/social security payments from higher social security and wages. The main disadvantage is your welfare index. Lowering your social security below 80 will decrease welfare, which decreases production and population spending. However I keep mine at 72 and have a welfare index of 133 in one of my countries. Also if you have a high finance index with very low social security it can cause civil unrest. Having lower wages also decreases production in your country with a decrease in income tax and education/healthcare contributions. So having very low wages isn't always the best idea unless your country isn't in good shape. However it can be just as bad even worse if you push your index and salaries too high. I see people having double the needed social security index( over 160 )which is just ignorant. Why pay people not to work 1.6 times that of people who work low paying jobs? Retired usually take up most of the social security payments along with disabled. If you have very high unemployment your social security costs will skyrocket. So a good level is between 70-80 for social security. The size of your country significantly can increase/decrease the cost of social security. Very very large countries with population over 200 million pay tens of billions a month in social security even with good employment. So a percentage will change the costs by much more then a country with only 30 million. Saving 2.5 billion a month is nothing compared to the real loss you would be making in production when you lower social security to only 10%.

I currently have a salary index of 300.0 in my corporations and for government workers with 80% social security. Is that good?

First off, before I am criticized for giving bad information, I do not claim to have your answer but I will give you my perspective: If you want to skip the math, I hear 85 is a good number for social security.

Although, I set mine at 50, simply because I think it's ridiculous that somebody (simulated or not), doing nothing at all, get 85pc what a ['low level'] worker gets.

I am not at all saying 85 is the optimal number. I've noticed, from my personal experience anyway, that 85 is a commonly recommended number. I have been told to set mine specifically to 85 by a couple of people, as well I've seen it in a guide somewhere in the past.

but like I said, I set mine to 50, just because I am leader of the simmies and I do what I want.

I have wondered what if I set to 0? heheheh

Zen made a good point that he keeps his welfare index around 130, because I have heard that it is good to keep your indexes at 130. I do not know what is so magical about the 130 number, but like the 85 number, I have heard from others that 130 is the sweet spot and that anything higher than 130 is ineffective. I do not actually know if that is true, I am merely relaying what I have heard from others.

I am interested to see if anybody knows more about the mysteries of these indexes will share their knowledge here.

That's because your welfare index can't go much over 130. So it doesn't make economical sense to have higher then 130 indexes. The following is directly from the game documentation for welfare.

"The happier the population in the country is, and the better the economy is doing, the higher is the welfare index.
The index can fluctuate between 90 (and in some cases even lower), and 140.

The Welfare Index is taking the lowest value of several other indexes:

The Health Index
The Education Index
The Transportation Index
The Supply Index + 41
The Employment Index + 37
The Social Security Index + 38
The Government Salary Index + 27
The Consumption Index contributes between 0 and 8 point to the welfare index. It needs to be at a level of about 300, to reach the max effect.
The game level will increase the welfare index by 1 point, for each game level higher than 10."

This is why it's best to keep education and transportation between 130-140 because it has a direct effect to welfare. Employment is usually good between 94-96 any higher and you will have a hard time keeping your corporations fully staffed, any lower and you won't be making the most out of your workforce. This also depends on the size of your country as well. Social Security Index is +38 which means if you have a 100 social security index or 80 you can have a max potential welfare of 138 however that is very hard for most players to get to and I've never seen it. Most players max out around 130-133 welfare from what I see. Which means your social security can be a little below 80 and it won't effect your welfare.

I love it.
zen, you are reading the documentation, thank you.

The advice is correct and you need to reduce unemployment.
keep your welfare index high and your unemployment low.
It will increase the corporate profits and reduce your social security cost.

Just asking... What would happen if I put my social security at 101%. Would I get a social security rating of 139%?

No the rating isn't +38 of your social security setting. The +38 refers to its contribution to the welfare index. So if your social security index is 102, your contribution for welfare index should in theory be 140. I'm not sure how accurate the docs are though as it could be out of date.

My social security is set to 80% and it gives me an index of 102. Then you add 38 to the index to get its impact on welfare index. Hope that is a bit more clear.

Glory to the Pinktator!