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How much do you have to make to consider yourself working class<\/a>? The targets keep moving.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to a recent Pew Research analysis<\/a>, 60% of Americans think of themselves as working class, up from 54% in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n Working class has traditionally referred to lower-income workers<\/a>. For many Americans, the term has become less about a specific income bracket and more about if they feel financially secure<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pew Research Center classifies middle-income households as those earning roughly $51,900 to $155,600 annually, with the precise range adjusted for household size and local cost of living. People in that group are especially likely to embrace the working-class label<\/a>: 67% say it describes them extremely or very well.<\/p>\n The finding is not limited to middle earners. Fully half of upper-income adults<\/a>, those above Pew\u2019s $155,600 threshold, also say they are working class.<\/p>\n More Americans identify with the working class label because the phrase has no universally accepted definition. For some people, it means lower-paid workers. For others, it refers to people without a four-year college degree<\/a> or those in trade jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet another group says that the term means anyone who depends on a paycheck<\/a> rather than investment income or inherited wealth.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pew found that 77% of workers in blue-collar occupations<\/a> identify as working class, but so do 61% of people working in other kinds of jobs.<\/p>\n The label also appears to capture something broader than income alone: a sense that even a solid salary does not automatically translate into financial ease. Pew found that half of people who say they can pay their bills<\/a>, have at least several months of emergency savings and live comfortably still consider themselves working class.<\/p>\n That perception persists even as wages have outpaced inflation over the past two years. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>, median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary workers rose from $1,139 in the first quarter of 2024 to $1,233 in the first quarter of 2026, an increase of about 8.3%. Over the same period, consumer prices rose by roughly 5.5%.<\/p>\n For years, middle-income Americans tended to report feeling closer to higher earners<\/a> than to lower earners in their ability to save, spend and manage day-to-day expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n That gap has widened. Middle-income households are now increasingly likely to express the same financial unease<\/a> as the lowest-income group, while higher earners have pulled further ahead.<\/p>\n Still, financial stress is not the only reason Americans adopt the working-class label<\/a>. Pew found that for many, the term appears to be as much about earning a living through work as it is about income, savings or spending power. Many Americans use the term working class to describe people who rely on a paycheck, regardless of salary, education or occupation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n How much do you have to make to consider yourself working class<\/a>? The targets keep moving.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to a recent Pew Research analysis<\/a>, 60% of Americans think of themselves as working class, up from 54% in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n Working class has traditionally referred to lower-income workers<\/a>. For many Americans, the term has become less about a specific income bracket and more about if they feel financially secure<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nWhy more Americans identify as working class<\/h2>\n
The middle class is feeling more financial strain<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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