Final answer:
The FICA tax is a tax withheld from workers' paychecks that funds Social Security and Medicare to provide retirement security.
Step-by-step explanation:
The principal objective of the FICA tax is to provide retirement security. The FICA tax, or Federal Insurance Contributions Act, is a tax withheld from the paycheck of workers that funds Social Security and Medicare. The money collected from the FICA tax is used to provide income and health care benefits to the elderly. While Social Security payments alone may not be enough to fund a comfortable retirement, the FICA tax helps to provide some measure of retirement security.