Is a $155,600 Salary Working Class? A Growing Number of Americans Think So.

How much do you have to make to consider yourself working class? The targets keep moving. 

According to a recent Pew Research analysis, 60% of Americans think of themselves as working class, up from 54% in 2024. 

Working class has traditionally referred to lower-income workers. For many Americans, the term has become less about a specific income bracket and more about if they feel financially secure. 

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: 67% say it describes them extremely or very well.

The finding is not limited to middle earners. Fully half of upper-income adults, those above Pew’s $155,600 threshold, also say they are working class.

Why more Americans identify as working class

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 or those in trade jobs. 

Yet another group says that the term means anyone who depends on a paycheck rather than investment income or inherited wealth. 

Pew found that 77% of workers in blue-collar occupations identify as working class, but so do 61% of people working in other kinds of jobs.

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, have at least several months of emergency savings and live comfortably still consider themselves working class.

That perception persists even as wages have outpaced inflation over the past two years. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 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%.

The middle class is feeling more financial strain

For years, middle-income Americans tended to report feeling closer to higher earners than to lower earners in their ability to save, spend and manage day-to-day expenses. 

That gap has widened. Middle-income households are now increasingly likely to express the same financial unease as the lowest-income group, while higher earners have pulled further ahead.

Still, financial stress is not the only reason Americans adopt the working-class label. 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.