- A six-figure salary used to be considered wealthy—but now, most of these earners are struggling to stay afloat amid raging living costs and salary deflation. That’s because households making $100,000 annually are still considered “middle-class” in every U.S. state, according to a recent analysis of 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data.
How much money you need to make to be “rolling in it” has changed: Earning nearly $200,000 a year isn’t even considered upper-class in some U.S. states. Being considered rich is becoming more gate-kept among the 1% raking in millions every day.
According to a recent SmartAsset analysis of 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data, a household making $199,000 a year in Massachusetts and New Jersey would still be considered middle-class.
Even in Mississippi, which has the lowest median middle-class income in the U.S., households would need to earn over $108,000 to be considered well-off.
The salary range of middle-class homes, representing about 52% of American workers, is of course huge. The lowest salary considered to be in the socioeconomic class is $36,132 in one state, while the highest hits a staggering $199,716 in another. But in every single state in America, a $100,000 salary is no longer enough to be considered upper-class—and families with six-figure incomes are even struggling to get by.
Why what’s considered middle-class has changed
A six-figure salary used to rouse images of a high-class lifestyle—luxury cars, sizable houses, and a stacked savings account on the side. But now it’s barely enough for most to survive.
More than half of Americans making over $100,000 annually lived paycheck to paycheck in 2022, 7% more than the previous year, according to a 2023 report from PYMNTS and LendingClub.
There are a few reasons why more six-figure earners are struggling to keep their heads above water: The SmartAsset report points to raging inflation and shifting salaries across the U.S. Some workers have been hit with wage deflation. Employees who stayed in their current roles received a 4.6% wage bump in January and February, while those who switched jobs received only a marginally higher increase of 4.8%, according to recent data from the Atlanta Fed. This has ruined the prospect of switching companies to make more money in the same role.
Inflation has also increased living expenses across the board, from egg prices shooting up over 60% in the last year to a housing market
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