Where is the line between "of course we're middle class!" and "yeah right, we're poor." Conversely, where is the line between "I'm just a regular middle class American" and "shut up dude, you're loaded."
I ask because 'middle class' seems to mean something rather different in the USA than it does in other countries. Including the UK.
26 comments
I think it’s kind of hard to pinpoint something exactly because it depends on where you are and what the cost of living is there.
it really really depends on where you live bc cost of living varies so much across the nation. in some places. $30k/year-$75k/year is middle class, while in others $75k-200k is middle class.
IMO, middle class is having the ability to own your own home. Below middle class is being forced to rent forever.
It depends on the region. Working class-to-middle class in Arkansas is different than WC-MC in New York City.
Having said that, in *general*
Poor -> Working class @ 32,000
WC to Middle Class @ 75,000
MC to wealthy @ 250,000
If you don’t pay federal income taxes, you’re either poor or very rich.
I would say for someone who doesn’t live beyond their means, you are in the middle of the “middle class” when you have an emergency fund, money you can set aside for retirement each paycheck, and the ability to take an affordable trip/vacation once a year.
If you only have one or two of those, I’d consider you lower middle class.
To me, the line is vaguely below me. Like, I can’t point at it, but I know I’m above it.
I think lumping everyone into poor, middle class, and wealthy puts people in too broad of categories.
On the lower income end of things, there is a big difference between the people who are struggling to make ends meet and the people who are so desperately poor that they don’t even have the basic necessities.
On the upper income end, someone who earns 300k/year doesn’t have anything remotely like the same lifestyle as a billionaire. 300k people have more comfort and security that the middle class, but they’re not buying yachts and bribing politicians like the billionaires.
We live in a country roughly the size of the continent of Europe with vastly different costs of living.
I would say in most major urban areas middle class starts somewhere around $100,000. In some smaller areas, that might go down to $50,000.
I use a few different metrics and define it entirely by cost of living.
Clearly middle class is when you household income is sufficient to afford a median home in your area. OR you already own this home. If you already own a home your income threshold for being middle class is very different than someone who needs to buy a home, especially if this home is already paid off. If you live in a home that is already paid off perhaps you could add the equivalent of that to your income. So if rents are $3300 per month, owning your own home has an economic value of of $40,000 per year.
A living wage is 4 times the median rent on a studio apartment in your area, this is for an individual, not a household. Lower middle class is when the household income is 3x the median rent in the area, this can involve multiple people working. Working class is when you must work to sustain your quality of living. If you have $2M in the bank and are living off the interest of $50,000 per year, your income may not be super high, but you are not working to obtain it.
This is why to be a middle class person in San Jose, CA, where the median home price is $1.5M is vastly different than Cleveland, OH where the median home price is less than $150,000.
Do you have to worry about making monthly bills? If you know you got it covered without checking regularly, I’d say middle class. If you have to keep an close eye to make ends meet, not middle class.
My sister defines it as “being able to afford everything we need, and most of what we want”.
Middle class is a nebulous term that people use whenever they don’t want to come off as poor or rich. Pew Research Center defines it as “Middle-income households – those with an income that is two-thirds to double the U.S. median household income.” ([source](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/07/23/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/)). From what I could find most recently $74,580 is median household income (though [that ](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2023/demo/p60-279.html)census data is from 2022). Thus, according to Pew, you’re middle class if your household makes about 50,000 to 150,000 a year. Not sure if that really tracks though, since a 50,000 a year household income would be below the living wage for most households with more than one person. Using Lansing, Michigan, as an example the living wage for a family of 4 is about 78,000 a year ([source](https://livingwage.mit.edu/metros/29620)). I think most statistical definitions will run into problems like this.
“Middle class” in America is a euphemism that’s applied to essentially the entire population. We use it in order to avoid actually defined social classes that might inspire people to be class conscious.
Hard to give a dollar amount, because it will vary by location. But if you have the income to buy a home, you’re in the middle class. It doesn’t have to be a nice home, or conveniently located, just if you can buy any home within practical driving distance of work.
Middle class is being able to save money for your kids to go to college.
To me the biggest difference between upper middle to middle is do you expect to inherit more than just money from a house, like investments or other property, multiple vacations a year and not having to save to go on vacation, just being able to afford it. Middle class may receive inheritance of a house or may not but they don’t expect to receive anything else, probably a blue collar worker and will save to go on vacation. Working class basically has to rent, will never inherit anything vacations are either few and far between far between or to things that other classes consider an activity not a vacation.
How I’d define using grocery shopping
1% – has private chef if they are grocery shopping it’s cuz they wanted to for kicks
Upper class – shops where they want when they want buying whatever they want. No clue price of stuff.
Upper middle class – similar to upper class but probably avoided places like Erewhon. May look at prices but it’s not something they consider when buying unless they like saving as a hobby.
Middle class – shops at basic grocery stores, may go to multiple due to cost. Has a budget to spend, will adjust what they are buying based on price. May buy something extra as a treat
Working class – standard to low cost places like grocery outlet/walmart. Shopping from list and very price conscious. Known cost of products at different stores and does not go over budget as they can’t. May be also getting food stamps.
Poverty – getting food stamps, goes to soup kitchens and food banks.
Middle class people need to work to make ends meet. Upper class people can make ends meet without working.
Lower class (that sounds so wrong) people work, but still can’t make ends meet.
Generally speaking, you are middle class anywhere in the USA if your household income is $100K per year. You’re at the top of the middle class in Alabama and on the lower end in SF, but you’re there.
Nowhere in the USA are you truly “loaded” if $100K is the sum total of your income, but also, nowhere in the USA are you genuinely struggling.
(Unless you’re either *really* good or *really* bad with money.)
Generally middle class is considered anyone making 2/3 to 2/1 of median household income (adjusted for area and household size).
It’s a decent definition but not always easy to apply, especially across geographies, and still covers quite a large range of incomes.
there’s also upper and lower middle class
Working Class > you have to think about and budget for basic purchases including utilities, groceries and healthcare
Middle Class> you don’t have to think about or budget for basic purchases and lower cost discretionary purchases like books, dinners out and entertainment purchases. You still have to think about and budget for larger cost purchases like vacations and vehicles
Wealthy> you can drop money on basic purchases and any level of discretionary purchase without considering budget or planning for it
We’re intentionally vague about it because when we say “Middle Class” we mean different things.
The mainstream opinion is that “Middle Class” is basically anyone who isn’t either hopelessly destitute or the idle rich. The broad back on which American culture and economy resides, and so on.
But to someone in certain niches, “Middle Class” is a horrible thing to be, a milquetoast, *bourgeois* sort of group that are to be insulted at every opportunity. (The funny thing there is that there’s one group that uses it that way that *hates* the other group that uses it that way. But I digress.)
What it definitely isn’t (to most non-economists) is a fixed line on a scale. Part of this is because of the freight put on the term “Middle Class”, partly it’s because people might find themselves in a group they don’t want to be in if it were strictly observed. (Some of the most anti-bourgeois people I’ve ever met were, in an economic sense, middle class. Some of the most “I’m just middle class, like you” people I met were nothing of the kind.)
I think it also has something to do with the relative economic “bubble” that most Americans live in- most of us don’t personally know anyone exceptionally richer *or* poorer than ourselves. So they see themselves as average.
If you care about the thermostat setting or cost of basic restaurants, not quite middle class imo
I don’t think it’s a number, because cost of living varies so wildly from place to place. I’d say middle class starts at having safe & secure food, clothing, and housing and enough income to pay all expenses/necessities and still have something left over to save (making things like vacations possible.)
At the top end, the best definition I heard of where upper class starts was “The upper middle class makes a ton of money from their work. The upper class makes a ton of money *whether they work or not*.” The doctor or software engineer making $300k is clearly very well-off, but the fact that they still have to go work for somebody 40+ hours a week makes their life enormously different from someone who makes $250k a year from their family real estate holdings and has all their time free.
Best definition I’ve heard is that the dividing line between upper and middle class is whether you work for your money, or if your money makes you more money.
The line between lower and middle I’m not as sure about. Maybe if you are confident you’ll be able to afford your base expenses (food, shelter, etc. Not non-essentials) vs if you struggle to afford these things? Not really sure on that one.
Anyone making more than me is rich. Anyone less? Poor. I am middle class whether I earn $10k or $10m per year. 🇺🇸