FDR Signs Social Security Act Creating Federal Old-Age Insurance and Unemployment Compensation

President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935, creating federal old-age insurance funded by payroll taxes on workers and employers, and a federal-state unemployment compensation system. Labor Secretary Frances Perkins chaired the Committee on Economic Security that drafted the legislation, and Senator Robert Wagner of New York sponsored the bill in the Senate. The Act also created federal grants for Aid to Dependent Children, the blind, and the elderly poor.