More Americans think of themselves as working class, even as they make more money

A majority of Americans hear themselves in Dolly Parton’s “9-to-5.” Sixty percent of Americans identify as working class, according to a Pew Research analysis of a January 2026 survey.

And the label, historically applied to lower-earning workers, resonates across earnings levels.

Middle-income families, who make between $51,900 to $155,600 depending on family size and location, identify especially with the term “working class.” More surprisingly, half of high-income families, who earn more than $155,600, identify that way.

That could be because the term itself is ambiguous: As the analysis notes, there’s no one clear definition of working class.

Some equate the working class with lower earners, while others see them as workers without a bachelor’s degree, or those explicitly working in blue-collar fields like construction and agriculture.

The Pew findings come as middle-earning or financially comfortable Americans don’t feel well-off, even while their pay has grown.

Median weekly earnings increased 8.4% from the first quarter of 2024 through the first quarter of 2026, outpacing the 5.5% inflation in prices over that time.

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Contact this reporter at jkaplan@businessinsider.com.

The middle third of earners used to feel similarly about their savings and spending as higher-earners did.

Those two groups have increasingly drifted apart, with sentiment among the middle earners tracking more closely with the lowest earners.

That’s reflected in how they’re spending, too: In 2024, Morning Consult found that middle-income consumers were spending more like their lower-income counterparts.

The increased identification with the working class also dovetails with a shrinking middle class, which has fallen from 61% of the population in 1971 to 51% in 2023.

Some of the growing disconnect might be because of inflation.

High prices generally make people feel bad about their economic prospects, and over the past few months, inflation has outpaced wage growth.

Financial stress also correlates with identifying as working-class.

Even still, half of those who reported a baseline of financial comfort — bills paid, expenses met, months of emergency savings — identified with the term working-class.

Your political leanings might also play a role in working-class identification, especially as affordability messaging takes center stage in America.

Steven Shepard, the associate director of political research at Pew and one of the report’s authors, said, “If you hold most of these other things equal, that Republicans are just more likely to say that that term describes them than Democrats.” Upper-income Republicans are far more likely to see themselves as working class than their Democratic counterparts.

On the other side of the political spectrum, progressive politicians have homed in on this newly expanded working class.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on an affordability platform meant to ease costs for the working class, which he told The New York Times is the “one majority in this country.” “If you have to work to pay your bills, I think that that is one definition of being a part of the working class,” Mamdani said.