The tens of millions of retirees who receive Social Security get benefits that are based on their work histories. The longer you work and the more you earn, the greater your Social Security check is likely to be in retirement.

The calculations that go into determining the exact amount of your monthly Social Security benefit are complicated. However, by making some assumptions, you can get a solid idea of just what every $1,000 you earn means for the Social Security benefits you'll eventually get.

The process that the Social Security Administration (SSA) goes through to figure out how much you'll receive from the program involves a few steps. First, the SSA goes through your work record, adjusting your annual compensation to account for inflation and picking out the 35 years when those adjusted earnings were the highest. Second, it adds up the earnings numbers and divides by 420 -- the number of months in 35 years -- to come up with your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME).

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Source Fool.com