Revealed: How Much You Have to Earn to Be 'Middle Class' in Your State
Staying in the middle class takes a lot of work, according to a new analysis.
A look at the numbers from the website GOBankingRates.com found that it took a nearly 42 percent increase in income to remain in the middle class from 2012, the midpoint of the Obama administration, to 2022, the middle of the Biden administration.
The site published a state-by-state listing of what it takes to be in the middle class, defining the term as people with an income no less than two-thirds of the median income and no more than double that figure.
Although the national minimum to be in the middle class was $50,099 as of 2022, the numbers vary widely. For example, a Mississippi household earning $35,323 is considered middle class. In Maryland, however, the qualifying income is $65,641, according to the site’s calculations.
The middle class is shrinking. In 1971, 61% of American households were considered to be middle class. That number has dropped to 50% three decades later, a Pew Research found.
“The creation of the middle class was based on factories and jobs.” Grant Cardone told GOBankingRates.… pic.twitter.com/uZIXcPAAEU
— Grant Cardone (@GrantCardone) March 3, 2024
Over the decade-long period, Alaska had the smallest increase in income to stay in the middle class at almost 23 percent.
In Oregon, however, the bar to call oneself in the middle class rose by over 53 percent.
A report from Investopedia published in February said the middle class is shrinking, equating middle class with middle income.
That meant annual incomes of between $30,000 and $90,000 per year for single Americans, as well as $42,430 to $127,300 for a couple and $67,100 to $201,270 for a family of four.
What? The economy has already crashed, and it has not finished crashing either. The middle class is shrinking again, as opposed to expanding during the Trump era. Biden is returning to the Obama era, in which the middle class was decimated, and growth was slowed to a crawl: pic.twitter.com/R3juAgj3yh
— Jatslo (@Jatslo) January 28, 2023
As of 2021, the report said 50 percent of Americans were in the middle class, a drop from 1971 data that put the figure at 61 percent.
A study by SmartAsset found that in a large American city, a middle-class income can fall anywhere between $52,000 and $155,000.
That analysis listed New Jersey, with a minimum middle class income of at least $64,224, as the state with the highest income needed to be in the middle class, followed by Maryland at $63,321 and Massachusetts at $62,986.
At the other end comes Mississippi, where $35,142 is required to be in the middle class. Mississippi is followed by West Virginia at $36,216 and Louisiana at $36,940 as the states with the lowest incomes necessary to be middle class.
Some cities have sky-high upper limits for placement in the middle class. For example, in Sunnyvale, California, a household earning $339,562 is at the upper bound of middle class income, followed by Fremont, California; San Mateo, California; Santa Clara, California; Bellevue, Washington and Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
On the low end, there is Detroit, where a household making $24,299 would be middle class.
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