While there's no definitive line, households in the top 20% of earners are generally considered upper class. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in 2022 was $74,580. To reach the upper class in 2024, you'd typically need an income exceeding $153,000 – more than double the national median.
Occupations that normally occupy the upper income groups are physicians, lawyers, business executives, and business owners.
Typical professions for this class include psychologists, professors, accountants, architects, urban planners, engineers, economists, pharmacists, executive assistants, physicians, optometrists, dentists, and lawyers.
Today, celebrities, politicians, investors, and other wealthy individuals fall into this group. In the United States, those who lived—and continue to live—in leadership roles in society are often considered part of the upper class. These are people whose status has been passed down through generations.
Typical white-collar jobs include company management, lawyers, accountants, financial and insurance jobs, consultants, and computer programmers, among many others. Many jobs that require a shirt and tie today are actually low-paying and high stress, especially in the modern services and technology sectors.
Successful entrepreneurs, CEOs, investment bankers, venture capitalists, heir to fortunes, celebrities, and a few number of professionals, are considered members of this class by contemporary sociologists, such as James Henslin or Dennis Gilbert.
Based on that figure, an annual income of $500,000 or more would make you rich. The Economic Policy Institute uses a different baseline to determine who constitutes the top 1% and the top 5%. For 2021, you're in the top 1% if you earn $819,324 or more each year. The top 5% of income earners make $335,891 per year.
Lower-income households had incomes less than $56,600, and upper-income households had incomes greater than $169,800. (Incomes are calculated in 2022 dollars.) The median adjusted household income used to derive this middle-income range is based on household heads, regardless of their age.
Check Out: What Is the Median Household Income for the Upper Middle Class in 2024? Now, there are plenty of places you could live where $200,000 in yearly earnings is considered middle class.
Upper-middle class: $94,001 – $153,000. Upper class: greater than $153,000.
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In several states, registered nurses not only achieve but surpass middle-income earnings, placing them in the upper-income bracket. Specifically, registered nurses' salaries are in the upper-income band in Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Nevada.
Most jobs that pay over $200k a year include doctors and lawyers, two fields that require education beyond a bachelor's degree, additional licensing, and specialized training.
1. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Topping the list, being a CEO gets you the highest paying job in the world, no matter where you work. A CEO is the highest-ranked position in any organisation's structure.
The middle class is commonly defined as households earning between two-thirds and double the median income, which is $128,151 in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, California metro area, the Census Bureau reports. That means middle class households there earn between $85,434 and $256,302 a year.
A pink collar worker is an employee who undertakes roles traditionally considered to be women's jobs, such as teacher, florist, child care, secretary, nurse, domestic helper, etc. These jobs typically rank low regarding status, pay, and career advancement opportunities.
Grey-collar jobs refer to employment that falls between blue-collar and white-collar categories. These jobs often involve a mix of manual labor and specialized skills, typically requiring some level of technical training or education.
The term "gold-collar" jobs refers to highly-skilled professionals in high-demand fields, such as doctors, lawyers, engineers, pilots and scientists.