If you live in the United States and work for a living, you probably think that your household wages put you and your family squarely in the social category deceptively tagged “the middle class.” Most wage earners in the U.S. identify themselves this way, no matter whether their incomes are greatly above or greatly below the actual middle on any given chart.

But did you know that the actual middle of the income scale (statistically speaking) provides way less money than is required to live a middle class American life as depicted on TV and in the media at large?

Most Americans don’t seem to know that.

For example, many households enjoying annual incomes in excess of $100,000 consider themselves to be middle class and say so freely, often while fretting about how much they will have to pay in taxes next year.

During the last presidential campaign, households earning over $250,000 argued vigorously that in America today, $250,000 is a solidly middle class income—especially in big cities—and that any plan to rescind the Bush tax cuts for households earning more than that was therefore a direct attack on the middle class.

Yet according to data collected by the U.S Census Bureau in 2005, only 15% of the households in the United States earn over $100,000 and only 1.5% of the households in the U.S. earn over $250,000. By any mathematical standard, the top 1.5% of a group of wage earners cannot be considered to be in the “middle” of anything.  And yet, they clearly want to say that they are.

You Are Solidly Middle Class If Your Household Income Is Between $28,000 and $250,000

Families earning the dead center median household income of $44,389 also think of themselves as middle class. That figure—$44,389—is the halfway mark, the number at which exactly 50% of the households fall short and 50% don’t, so claiming to be middle class if you land here at least makes statistical sense. A household earning $44,389, depending on withholding and the number of deductions and so on, takes home about $600-$650 each week.

But—and this is kind of a big ‘but’—this $45K median household income is most frequently split between two working halves of a married couple, neither of whom earns anything close to middle income wages.

For instance, the median annual income for a man in the U.S. currently is just over $45K and for a woman it is just over $33K, but the median HOUSEHOLD income is around $45K-$51K (depending on which numbers you tap). How is it then that a household that earns $45K-$51K can lay claim to middle class status?

Most of these households achieve their ‘middle class’ status by combining one part-time income and one below-median income. In reality, both of the adults have lower than median wages. Neither of them separately approaches middle class status, but when they pool their wages we accept their claim to being part of the ‘middle class.’ Retaining that identity tends to be very emotionally important to them.

It gets even more disturbing when we look at American wages more carefully. Consider this: Half of the households in the United States live on less than $45,000 per year. That’s HOUSEHOLDS, not individuals—kids, parents, grandma or grandpa and the dog—all scraping by on a combined income of less than $45K annually.

Nearly a third of those households earning under $45K (or exactly 28.22% as of 2005) make less than $25,000 annually. $25,000 for an entire household still doesn’t put that household at the official government poverty level (which by the way has remained essentially stationary since the 1960s).

A person making $25,000 per year takes home between $325 and $365 clear each week. How many people could support a family on that? How reasonable is it to expect families to survive on this?

What Does a Middle Class Lifestyle Really Cost?

If you look at recent household income charts compiled by the U.S. Census, the smallest number of households are found at the $75K-$100K level. Yet in order for a household to maintain a middle class lifestyle the way that lifestyle is portrayed on TV and in the media, $75K is pretty much the minimum household income required.

Assuming our imaginary middle class family can find a home for around $130,000 (not likely in some areas), and assuming two newer automobiles cost between $25,000 and $40,000 each (which they do), weekly expenses to keep a home, two cars, and a couple of kids in a suburban subdivision break down like this:

• Mortgage (with taxes and insurance escrowed): $1200 or more
• Car payments: $200-300 each, or around $500
• Car insurance: $200
• Utilities: $300 (minimum, this will vary wildly according to locale and may be MUCH, much higher)
• Food: $600 (assuming a family of 4, $150 per week on groceries and sundries)
• Public school fees for two kids: $50
• Cable, Internet connection: $130
• Cell phones: $100
• Health insurance (employee portion only): $150
• Out-of-pocket health care costs w/deductibles paid and 20% maximum limit reached: $275
• Dental work, car repairs and other surprise one-time expenses: $300
• Gasoline/commuting costs for two cars: $100

Total these expenses up and what is needed to cover them comes to right around $4000 per month or $1000 clear each week. To clear $1000 weekly, you need an annual salary of right around $75K. That salary will barely get you into this coveted middle class lifestyle. Nothing can go wrong, no emergencies can occur. You can’t send your kids to private school. Saving anything at all will be nearly impossible. Forget 401K contributions—not gonna happen with these kinds of outside financial obligations. Notice that I have also not included a clothing budget, a VISA card payment (or any unsecured debt—even though the average in the U.S. is around $8,000 per person), or any cash for vacations or leisure activities—only the bare necessities are in this total.

Where we will all be working very soon (if we’re lucky)

Reality Check, Please!

So why bring any of this up at all? Why bring it up now?

I only bring it up because 1) the media and politicians CONSTANTLY focus on the needs and problems of the middle class as if there actually is one, and 2) I think the term ‘middle class’ in America has become a code word for something like ‘normal’ or ‘not poor’; or even uglier, ‘not irresponsible’, or uglier still, ‘white or with white values—good Americans, the good ones, not those bad ones with no money’. 

When people who are not statistically middle class by actual income rush to identify themselves with an elite group to which almost no one really belongs, it begs the question, “Why?” What’s up with that? When did working for a living or having less become shameful? When did we start judging one another purely on our stuff and our personal stash of cash?

Even during the Great Depression, people were nicer and more realistic than that.

Why not tell the truth about income and embrace the truth? Why not talk about real situations in real terms of declining wages and increasing pressures and costs? Why not talk about class in a way that addresses what the majority of Americans are really experiencing day in and day out instead of pretending that some of us are better than others by virtue of our appearance, expressed values, and financial worth?

Statistically speaking, it can be easily shown that most ‘middle class’ Americans are anything but middle class, and that those few who have managed to drag themselves and their familes across the threshold of a middle class lifestyle often owe so much money in unsecured debt that they are constantly on the verge of falling into the economic abyss.

The truth is, the American middle class has been gone for at least a decade, and the gap between the working poor and the incredibly rich gets bigger every day.  Until that fact starts to get some uptake in political rhetoric and in everyday discussions about ideology and ideas, I don’t see how opportunity in America comes back.

Until we stop pretending and start organizing, I think it just gets worse.