By [Author Name] | Economics & Policy Correspondent
Six figures used to settle the argument. In January 2026, Pew Research Center asked American adults whether the term "working class" described them well — and half of those earning more than $155,600 a year said yes.
That is not a rounding error. It is a quiet redefinition of what class means in the United States, delivered through a survey question rather than a policy debate.
Sixty Percent, and Climbing: Inside Pew's January 2026 Reading
According to Pew's analysis, 60% of U.S. adults say "working class" describes them well. The figure holds across lines that once divided the label cleanly: half of college graduates agree, and half of upper-income adults — those above $155,600 a year — say the same.
Pew also noted the numbers were up across the board from a previous reading. The full comparison figures were not included in the source material available for this report.
Why a $155,600 Salary Now Feels Like a Middle-Class Liability
The income threshold matters because of what it once meant. Pew's analysis notes that $155,600 a year would have placed a household firmly in the upper middle class in the early 2000s.
Two decades later, that same salary is being claimed by people who describe their economic life as precarious. The gap between the statistic and the feeling is the story.
How 'Working Class' Drifted Up the Pay Scale
"Working class" has always been an ambiguous label. Pew describes it as historically applied to low-income earners, people without four-year degrees, and blue-collar workers — three overlapping groups that never perfectly matched each other.
What has changed is the direction of travel. The term is no longer anchored to a pay band. It is being adopted by households with graduate degrees, professional titles and six-figure salaries.
The Households Behind the Number
Self-identification is personal because household budgets are personal. Two families can earn identical salaries and experience completely different financial lives depending on where they live, what they owe and what they pay for childcare or healthcare.
Pew's data captures how people describe themselves. It does not tell us which specific costs drove that description — and the research centre does not present one.
What Pew Measured — and What It Deliberately Left Out
Pew Research Center is a non-partisan research organisation, and this analysis is based on a survey conducted in January 2026. The question asked was about identity: whether the term describes the respondent well.
That distinction is important. A survey of self-description is not a measure of income, wealth or hardship. It measures how people place themselves in a society they are watching get more expensive.
Identity Economics: Why People Define Class by Bills, Not Brackets
When income stops predicting self-image, something else is doing the work. Perceived security — the sense that a single job loss or medical bill could unravel a household — is a more powerful sorting mechanism than a salary band.
It is also relative. A $155,600 income feels very different in a city with punishing housing costs than in a town where the same money buys space, schooling and savings. Identical numbers, unequal lives.
Confirmed, Reported, and Still Unsettled
Confirmed by Pew's analysis: 60% of U.S. adults identify as working class; half of college graduates agree; half of upper-income adults above $155,600 agree; the survey was conducted in January 2026; the figures rose across the board from a prior reading.
Not established: what specifically is driving the shift, how the current figures compare numerically with earlier surveys, or the survey's margin of error, none of which appeared in the material available. Any explanation beyond Pew's own findings is interpretation, not data.
The Case Against Calling Six Figures 'Working Class'
The obvious objection is definitional. If half of upper-income earners qualify as working class, the term risks losing its descriptive power and its political weight.
There is also a fairness argument: stretching the label can blur the line between households managing inconvenience and households managing genuine deprivation. Both can be true at once — a squeeze on the comfortable does not erase hardship further down.
An Affordability Story That Crosses Every Income Bracket
What makes this more than a linguistic curiosity is its breadth. The shift is not concentrated among one age group, one region or one education level — the education and income splits Pew reported both lean the same way.
That pattern points to an affordability squeeze that has become a shared American experience rather than a poor household's problem. Wage growth, price levels and the cost of borrowing all feed into how secure a salary actually feels.
What Readers Should Take From This — and What to Check in Their Own Budget
For households, the practical takeaway is that income alone is a poor test of financial health. What matters is the ratio between fixed obligations — rent or mortgage, loans, insurance, childcare — and take-home pay.
For anyone reading the survey as a political signal, it is worth remembering that self-identification shifts faster than economic data. Identity often moves first; votes, spending and savings follow later.
What to Watch in the Next Pew Reading
The key question is direction. If the share identifying as working class keeps rising across income groups, it suggests a durable change in how Americans read their own economic position.
If it flattens, the January 2026 result may look more like a snapshot of a difficult stretch than a permanent reclassification. Either way, the next comparable survey will be the test.
Our Take
The most revealing detail here is not that 60% of Americans call themselves working class. It is that half of the people earning above $155,600 agree — an income that once served as proof of arrival.
Something has shifted in how Americans calibrate security: not by what they earn, but by how quickly it could disappear. Pew has measured the mood. It has not yet explained it, and anyone who claims otherwise is filling in gaps the data leaves open.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of Americans call themselves working class?
Roughly 60% of U.S. adults say the term "working class" describes them well, according to a Pew Research Center analysis based on a survey conducted in January 2026.
What income counts as upper income in this survey?
Pew's upper-income group in this analysis refers to adults earning above $155,600 annually. Half of that group identified as working class — a level that Pew notes would have been solidly upper middle class in the early 2000s.
Do college graduates also identify as working class?
Yes. Half of college graduates said the label describes them well, which challenges the long-standing assumption that "working class" means someone without a four-year degree.
Why do higher earners describe themselves as working class?
Pew's analysis does not identify a single cause. Self-identification surveys measure perception, not hardship, so the answer likely sits in how secure people feel about their costs, savings and future earnings — not purely in what they earn.
