FICA

The payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare, withheld from every paycheck.

FICA, the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, is the payroll tax split between employee and employer that funds Social Security and Medicare. It appears as a line-item deduction on every paycheck stub, a fixed percentage of wages up to an annual cap for the Social Security portion, with no cap on the Medicare portion.

She noticed FICA taking a steady bite out of every paycheck, funding the Social Security she'd draw on decades later.