The Salary Required to Be “Middle Class" in Every State

[FLPanhandle]

“Middle class” doesn’t have a definite, official definition. But the Pew Charitable Trust defines it as households that earn between 67 and 200 percent of a state’s median income. Based on this metric and some statistics, Business Insider came up with a list of how much you have to earn to be considered middle class, depending on your state.



Personally, I think the definition is too low on both ends. A person in Florida making over $92,000 isn't exactly upper class. That's solid middle class to me.

[etherealtruth]

1. Interesting!

[stevenleser]

2. While interesting, it is fairly meaningless

This needs to be done by local area to have meaning. For instance, the median income and what is middle class is very different in Needles, California, and San Francisco. Similarly the difference is huge between Lowville, NY and Manhattan.

The other thing this needs to have to have meaning is Cost of living for each local region.

Middle class, at least to me, is more than just being in the middle of income. It has to do with earning at or up to moderately above a living wage. In other words the middle class can be close to non existent in an area, or it might be a huge percentage of a population.

[RedCappedBandit]

6. Yeah. Per this chart, a middle class household in Manhattan

literally would be unable to rent an apartment.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. FIXED

Yeah. Per this chart, a middle class household in Manhattan literally would be unable to eat after paying the rent rent on their apartment.

[RedCappedBandit]

19. Well where I was coming from

is in my experience, that level of income wouldn't even qualify you as a renter. I don't even understand how people live here without cosigners.

But yeah, assuming they were able to sign a lease.. not much left for anything else.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. Unless you're "rich" you're commuting to Manhattan. The rents there are insane.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. And is this for households or individuals?

2 people making 20 K in Alabama - middle class if they live together
but not if they live apart.

A family of 4 with 40 K income would not be considered well off, given the much higher expenses.

[stevenleser]

23. Another good point. I don't know that this info has any real value

I am interested in a study that takes into account both of our points.

[JaneyVee]

3. Interesting how....

The median income is higher in blue states than red states.

[yeoman6987]

5. We better be. Our stuff costs more

I could take my home in Maryland and own an entire red state outright. Lol....close.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

10. Yeah, but I'd bet in most cases it's a wash

due to the higher cost of living.

[Helen Borg]

22. Expensive lattes! :)

[yeoman6987]

4. I am between median and upper middle in Maryland.

So awesome we are number one. We pay our workers well. Yeah!!!!! We are the best state around. Probably the lowest percentage of poor too.

[kelly1mm]

28. Maryland is #11 out of 51 (50 states + DC) in non adjusted poverty rate (9.7%) and #23

in cost of living adjusted poverty rate (13.4%). Basically middle of the pack but better than the national averages of 12.6% and 16.0 %.

There is more to Maryland than the DC/Batimore suburbs (where incomes are high and skew the state averages).

Baltimore City, Eastern shore, Western Maryland (say west of Frederick), are all pretty poor areas.

link for stats:

http://www.ask.com/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_poverty_rate?o=2801&qsrc=999&ad=doubleDown&an=apn&ap=ask.com

[Warpy]

8. This is ridiculously low

Throw in a couple of kiddies and a house big enough to house them all, and everybody on the low and mid range is living paycheck to paycheck and that is not middle class, even though it might be the middle of the pittances working slobs get these days.

The people on the top end of the range are just beginning to be able to save and invest for retirement, but they can't afford to pay the kids' way through college, take vacations every year, or do anything much that the middle class of 40 years ago could count on.

This range is working class, not middle class.

America needs a raise. The ridiculous amounts of wealth hoarded by the top 1% needs to be redistributed where it will do some good. The only way they should be able to escape confiscatory taxation is by building industry in the US, hiring US workers at living wages.

[appal_jack]

9. 100% agreed, Warpy. Always glad to read your analyses. k&r, nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. For the USA as a whole, the 90th percentile earns 2.3 times as much as the 50th percentile

(ie than the median): http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=46189

(was 2.0 times in 1984, 2.1 in 1995, and 2.2 in 2005). So earning more than twice as much as the median probably puts you in the top 20%, or maybe a little higher than that. It seems a good cut-off point to me. If you have twice what the average person has, you're doing pretty well.

[Warpy]

15. What you've got to realize is just how much wealth that top 0.1% has sucked up

Because of that, wages at the bottom haven't come anywhere near the inflation rate. Marking us off against each other is a losing game because of that and we've all been shoved down a class. The numbers don't tell the story here. What those numbers will buy does.

You're arguing over the crumbs we have left, which is what the authors of the above graph want you to do.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Then don't use the term 'middle class', because it's explicitly about comparing people

What the top 0.1% takes doesn't really come into this, because we're looking at the relative figures for people well below that.

The message of the Pew Charitable Trust calculation, by the way, was that the middle class is shrinking: http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2015/3/19/the-shrinking-middle-class-mapped-state-by-state

Keeping with the Florida figures, it's shrunk from 48.8% in 2000 to 45.9% in 2013. Yes, the median income has also gone down, after adjusting for inflation, from $53,493 to $46,036.

For people who want to place themselves, I think it's also worth using the figures that include the number of people in a household - a single person household is obviously a lot better off for a given income than a 4 person household. This page has the 2013 figures for 60% of the median for different sizes, in all the states: http://www.liheapch.acf.hhs.gov/tables/FY2013/fy_13_smi_table.pdf

Again, for Florida, the 60% of median figures are, for 1 to 6 person households:
20,507 26,817 33,127 39,437 45,747 52,057
So the median figures are:
34,178 44,695 55,212 65,728 75,245 86,762

So, for a 4 person household, that would put the Pew middle class definition between $44,038 and 131,456.

[Warpy]

18. I use middle class to describe a lifestyle traditionally enjoyed by them.

What is described above is working class.

Period.

[FLPanhandle]

24. That was my first reaction when reading the numbers

The upper end, that's what I used to consider "middle class" purchasing power.

[lumberjack_jeff]

13. Inflated expectations

$100,000 is the 80th percentile of income.

The key to happiness is low expectations. Those who think that $100,000 is middle anything are bound to be unhappy.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

25. $100,000 could be two RNs married to each other

Although that places their household in the 80th percentile, no one would suggest that they are anything but middle class.

[lunatica]

14. In California that puts me in the middle class

But I'm also in the lower middle class in all 50 states. And I'm by myself. No kids, no husband, nobody, so that means I'm doing much better with my salary than others with the same salary who have kids.

I thank my union for my salary increases in the last 5 years. Teamsters rock!

[Cleita]

17. I live in California.

I wish I got the $40,127. middle class lower bound. I wouldn't be struggling like I do now.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

21. I feel ya...CA is insanely expensive.

Thank God my gf has a good job and loves me.

[tularetom]

26. Like all statistics, these are basically meaningless

Actually, they're multi meaning, you can read into them what you want.

In our little podunk county in CA, the median household income barely tops the statewide "Middle Class Lower Bound" of $40k.

[gollygee]

27. The middle class is disappearing

I think what used to be the middle class makes more than these charts show, but there aren't many of them left, and the working poor class has increased substantially.

[liberal_at_heart]

29. And these numbers mean nothing without adding in the cost of living.

I live in WA state. Earning $39,000 will not get you far. It sure won't get you a decent house, pay your electric bill, pay for groceries, send your kids to college, and give you a dignified retirement. You are right. The middle class is disappearing. It is almost non existent.