The income required to be considered middle class in the United States has risen, with Massachusetts now having the highest threshold. Even with those inflation adjusted wage gains since last year, plenty of middle-class Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, as a new report from CNBC’s The Exchange shows. This unfortunate truth is highlighted in a recent 2024 survey that found two-thirds of Americans living in or near the middle class say they are financially falling behind.
As a result, Vermont’s neighboring state of Massachusetts has surpassed New Jersey as the state with the highest income threshold to be considered middle class. CNBC's report indicates that a household in the U.S. needs to earn between $66,565 and $199,716 to be considered middle class. The Pew Research Center’s narrow definition of rural greatly influences what is included within this range. It uses the OECD definition of the middle class as those earning between two-thirds and twice the median household income. The latest such census of income in America is the decennial census, first established under the Constitutional Art.
The analysis has revealed just how high the new ceiling on middle class is. It’s now almost $11,000 more than what was previously disclosed. The floor for middle-class incomes is set at $48,272, with a ceiling extending all the way up to $144,830. have a median household income of $72,415. The upper bound of what’s defined as middle class for a household is over $100,000 in each U.S. state.
As compared to late 2021, inflation-adjusted wages have increased since the beginning of 2022. Increases that began in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic began, have more than offset those increases. In 2024, the National True Cost of Living Coalition surveyed members. This survey puts a spotlight on the financial squeeze a lot of middle-class families are feeling right now. Ending this financial squeeze underscores the increasing difficulty of sustaining a middle-class lifestyle in the face of escalating costs.
