# 404.220 Average-monthly-wage method.
(a) *Who is eligible for this method.* You must before 1979, reach age 62, become disabled or die to be eligible for us to compute your primary insurance amount under the average-monthly-wage method. Also, as explained in § 404.230, if you reach age 62 after 1978 but before 1984, you are eligible to have your primary insurance amount computed under a modified average-monthly-wage method if it is to your advantage. Being eligible for either the average-monthly-wage method or the modified average-monthly-wage method does not preclude your eligibility under the *old-start* method described in §§ 404.240 through 404.242.
(b) *Steps in computing your primary insurance amount under the average-monthly-wage method.* We follow these three major steps in computing your primary insurance amount under the average-monthly-wage method:
(1) First, we find your average monthly wage, as described in § 404.221;
(2) Second, we look at the *benefit table* in appendix III; and
(3) Then we find your primary insurance amount in the benefit table, as described in § 404.222.
(4) Finally, we apply any automatic cost-of-living or *ad hoc* increases that became effective in or after the year you reached age 62, or became disabled, or died before age 62, as explained in §§ 404.270 through 404.277.