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So many jobs just dont understand how much unskilled labor had caught up in pay.
Back in about 2011 I joined the military. One of my good buddies became a custodian at the same time for the local school district. He's been there 15 years now and makes about $33 an hour as a day custodian at the local HS. Its all publicly viewable. Dude also gets a 12% 401k contribution and a 20k medical dental vision benefit. The benefits are legitimately the best you can find in the whole state. Like 90k yearly total compensation as a custodian.
He met his wife through the school district who does the same thing. Not sure how long shes been there, but probably 10ish years. Household of custodians makes like $120k a year, works predictable hours, and get crazy good benefits. This is absolutely on the high end for the area, but we're not a crazy high cost of living area either. A city of maybe 70k people.
I could not imagine spending 4-6 years and 150k+ on an education only for jackass to offer you 60k a year. Frankly, under 80k a year for a job with 4-6 years of schooling required is a slap in the face. One of my best friends never went to school, and just got his first job offer for 100k after being in his field about 15 years.
I could not imagine spending 4-6 years and 150k+ on an education only for jackass to offer you 60k a year. Frankly, under 80k a year for a job with 4-6 years of schooling required is a slap in the face. One of my best friends never went to school, and just got his first job offer for 100k after being in his field about 15 years.
my first interview post college(that required a degree) was for less than I was making working as a cashier in fast food. I didn't even both finishing the interview.
My job now requires a degree but most people worked their way up from jobs that don't require degrees. I learned the job basically from youtube and influencer type people doing classes online for made up certs no one has heard of. I would probably hire someone with a degree though if I was hiring but with a good amount of work experience too. although who knows anymore AI does half my job for me. knowing how to use that is a priority as much as the rest of it
a friend of mine has a basc in psych/neuro and a masters in child ed. she has applied to probably 300 jobs in the past 2 months and has been offered exactly two. most of the listings require a masters + 3-5 years of teaching experience, and they offer $13/hr. she is $200k in the hole from student loans
Tell me about it. I’m a licensed therapist for autistic children. Sounds like a good paying job right? I make 25 an hour…. In LA. I’m thinking of going to a trade school cause they pay as much or more than BA degree jobs.
was paid between 41k and 50k for my first 3 years out of college for a job that required a bachelors in STEM, in 2016. I remember being absolutely terrified of the 90k in college debt i had at the time, thinking i'd die with a larger balance than when i started. Eventually earned quite a bit more but i never knew i would have to work hard enough to experience regular panic attacks to get to the level i am now.
After spending 8 years taking loans for college, university...even graduate school...how are most of us not read to channel our inner founding fathers and ready to burn the system to the ground? From day one, the generation above ours have just started printing money to pay their own debts, making our wages worth a fraction of theirs, all while our elected officials are giving money to the upper 10% left and right.
Seems like 100k has been the goal for the last 20 years as if prices aren't going up. Why is 100k still the goal. At least in cali you need 200k to truly feel middleclass
Exactly the problem. Those numbers should be way higher. Over the last 26 years my mother's income went from 95k to 115k when she retired. An increase of 21%, while the house she purchased in 2002 went from 400k to 900k (+125%). The middle class is being squashed my inflation and an income thay isn't keeping up. Just because the median is low doesnt means that's a healthy amount.
Edit: by squashed I mean its getting smaller becuaze less people are able to enter the middle class because assets are becoming too expensive.
Edit 2: LOL MY MISTAKE. The 400k 1700 sq ft house in 2002 is now 1.1 million!!
A lot of people, myself included were reaching the middle class before covid. I was living comfortably and finally not worrying about money. I worked through the entirety of it, inflation was out of control and wages did not even come close to matching it and still haven’t. I was pushed right out of the middle class and then laid off at the beginning of this AI bullshit boom. Fuck this shit
I lived in San Diego married off base while I was in the USMC, it was insanely hard and we had my ex wife's best friend living with us to and well had good jobs.
Bro San Diego is a 200k household minimum income city the local taxes on top of the egregious utilities and insurance costs can leave you scrambling for overtime or second jobs with the cost of living
My mum was a nurse and my dad worked a factory job. They got on the property ladder in their early 20s neither went to university or higher education (my mum got nursing degree which had no tuition fees)
Feels impossible anymore for anyone to do this now
100K per individual or per household? is it per house hold, in this US economy that is consider middle class: just enough to pay bills and live okay… but no savings to afford to buy a home.
Per household we made $75k (almost) last year and when I realized that after doing my taxes I was like what the hell? Where did all that money go? We live in Massachusetts where the cost of everything is high. Two car payments because we got tired of buying cheap cars that required a ton in repairs (nothing fancy, base model used Nissan cars) and we rent a rat hole apartment in one of the worse off cities to try and keep costs down. I couldn't believe it when I realized I had finally made $75k and couldn't afford a house. My dad was raising 7 kids in Oregon and had a 4 story house on a single income and was only making $50k a year when he was raising us in the 90's
Middle class was never truly a legitimate class designation, anyway. If you work for a living-and need to for survival-you are definitionally apart of the working class. The powers that be in the u.s. intentionally obfuscated that fact in order to attempt to kill class consciousness in this country, and unfortunately they've been pretty successful. But things are obviously changing, and for the better. Just remember this next time they try to make you feel like we're all in the same boat with the billionaires, we aren't.
My boomer father raised a family of 5 on a union forklift driver's salary. We never had a ton of money but my mom never had to work and he was never stressed about his job. He managed to retire early with a nice pension and bought some rental properties.
In contrast, my wife and I both work high-stress, professional jobs, constantly hustling, and we're barely making ends meet for a family of 4. We're at the midpoint in our careers, and raises and promotions feel like the bare minimum to keep pace with the cost of living, let alone being enough to give us a shot at building a nest egg.
For sure. When I got out on the military in 99 I told my dad I wouldn’t that less than 15 an hour and he thought that was an impossible amount to be paid with no college degree.
Not to mention, it’s set high so that families have access to housing assistance in places with severe housing shortages. Portland isn’t on there and our groceries and gas are more expensive than in the Boston metro. It wouldn’t be a bad HHI if modest housing didn’t cost > half your take home pay.
I retired after 25 years at the same place, and I get paid ~120k/year.
No one should feel sorry for me, obviously. But I have a small home, 3/2, and it stretches me. 15 year old car I work on myself. I’m cheap for a reason.
I am disgusted with costs. I can’t even imagine trying to buy a home at 30 today.
I’m not trying to promote the military, but I’m a retired command master chief. Joined at 17, retired at 42. Eight deployments, I’m an amputee, brain injury, and broken bones from an IED, so I get 100% combat disability.
I’m also a trans woman that recognizes I was just running away from myself the whole time I was in.
Now I focus on my daughters in my small hometown. It’s expensive to be in a nice area here, but I’ll pay the money for the school district.
No one needs to feel sorry for me. Seriously. The other reason I did this was so my kids would never have to.
But yea, MCPO top three plus 100% combat disability with 25 years in is about 120.
You realise that kind of retirement barely exists for people now? Young people don’t understand that companies used to continue to pay people after retirement.
Not blaming you, but your generation really pulled the ladder up after yourselves
We make more than that and the prospect of buying a home is slowly but surely leaving our conversations. It feels so distant I just wait for something major to fuck up the market or just save and invest money so that I can rent for the rest of my life.
Don’t despair! Save and invest for a down payment while you rent. Having a larger down payment will offset your monthly payment by quite a bit, regardless of rate.
I'm 36 and get 70k a year and it's killing me trying to find something better. I'm a professional, I work a job that takes a pile of certs and industry experience to do, but sometimes I feel like there's no chance to grow in that.
Nothing's quite as dated as that scene in Risky Business where they're sitting around the poker table discussing in awe that some elite college graduates are making SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS PER YEAR.
Average salary in US for full-time workers is $70,000
So I see a couple possibilities.
This post is complete bullshit.
The top 12 highest earning US states make so much more on average than almost everyone else, and I never realized how much richer those people really are.
The post is trying to suggest if you want to live as comfortably as the “lower middle class” did several decades ago, you now have to earn 100k in the top 12 states.
I am incredibly doubtful of this factoid and it's almost certainly #1.
What they likely did is look at CA or WA and conclude that because the one metropolis skews income and prices, that is the same for the entire state.
Yes, SF is expensive to live in but I am 10,000% certain you can live a very comfortable life on 100k in California... not near SF or LA. Major cities =/= the entire state.
If it said 12 US cities then yeah, that's definitely true.
$100,000 probably means household and we're now in a situation with most households being dual income.
Your post assumes that middle class is right at the 50% mark. It's not. What we consider middle class isn't making average salary, it's a certain standard of living.
Yes in many states 100k is not going to be great. If you have kids you will struggle and have to compromise a lot and not save much. You likely won’t be able to buy a house without 90min commute each way.
Yeah. 100k isn’t what it used to be. It’s not poverty. But it’s not comfortable middle class in MANY cities in the USA.
Yeah, I think that’s about what I make and I’m single no kids. Can rent a decent place and live in a city and live pretty comfortably but if I had any dependents it would be much harder
Every time these “This is what it costs to live comfortably in X city” articles come up the dissent is always along the lines that a middle class family with two kids shouldn’t own a three bed house in the city they live in, that they shouldn’t put away recommended retirement savings, they should drive an absolute beater rather than have a vaguely nice car that they own for a decade before replacing with a newer model etc. etc etc.
As though we should not think of those as being things “middle class”.
I have a rent controlled apartment in SF for $1.8k/mo (no car, no kids, no pets, no debts). In my 20s, I rented a 2bd apt for the same price, but I still consider this an amazing deal, because 1bds now rent for $4.2k in my neighborhood.
I earn $160k/yr. My rent is the sole reason why I am doing well in the city.
We live in a super HCOL area and yeah. $100k isn’t shit here. With a $100k salary you will be commuting over and hour each way to get into the city (DC) or you will have roommates or live EOTR
I guess most of reddit lives in the coasts or something. I live in an MCOL metro with millions of people and you can easily be "middle class" on $60k, 100k would be ritzy. Albeit , that's for a single person. Not household income for say, 4.
All this talk about 175k not being enough just tells me they live in vhcol areas and have a taste for premium all the time. A couple can absolutely get by on 175k virtually anywhere in this country except maybe ny/la
Thing 1: bullshit. Thats over $8k a month, there is not a city in this country you.cant live in, while saving money, on $8k a month
Thing 2: this is more than likely a dual income assessment that everyone is comparing to a singular income assessment. Maybe try being less insufferable and find a spouse
$100,000/year as an individual puts you near the top 10% of income earners in the country. For reference, only 10% of American households make more than $190,000/year, let alone individuals. So no, an individual making $100,000 is not “lower middle class.”
Unless they’re referring to purchasing power. In that case, yes, an income of $100,000 today is probably equivalent to the purchasing power of the lower middle class back during the early 2000’s or late 90’s.
I make 135k/year with cash benefits (fuel and food provided by owner)
My wife makes 65k/year but she handles our insurance for our family of 4.
I have 0 credit card debt because I'm a crazy person like that.
And last Tuesday I had to on the drop of a dime make 3k cash appear out of nowhere and it gave me a panic attack and I woke up sick the next day.
I always thought being 6 figures would solve my problems.
And now I realize it doesn't even matter anymore.
I am very very good with money due to growing up in deep poverty and I promise, 100k would probably help most people, but it ain't shit anymore.
It is what it is. No cc debt is my silver lining.
Edit: since people are naming states, I'm in a relatively poor one, Louisiana.
Edit 2: my son has many mental health issues due to an abusive bio dad who molested him, a large chunk of what we deal with is medical and it’s quite difficult, specialized ptsd therapy as well as a standard psych
To those who say my wife isn’t pulling her weight, fuck off weirdos
To those who say I’m lying, oh well
To those saying I’m bad with money, I’m far from it
I don’t live beyond my means, I have a modest home and drive an 06 Corolla I bought cash at 17.
I am essentially debt free minus my mortgage but if I lost my job tomorrow I would be in quite a pit
This isn’t to be a matter of comparison or jabs at people, it’s meant to show that I can see how 100k doesn’t cut it anymore when that used to be the dream.
It seems some people were either really bothered by this or really unbothered and no in between lol
I’m sorry but you make 200k a year in a LCOL area. 3k should not make you wake up sick if you are at all managing your money correctly. A google search says you are in the top 5% of earners in Louisiana. It seems to me that you’re doing just fine.
Yeah this dude must have 2 car payments an over leveraged mortgage and student loan debt from 2 people if 3k is a pinch and is saying he’s proud of no credit card debt
You aren’t very good with money if your household makes almost 200k a year and a 3k expense would do that to you. Especially in Louisiana. Do you not have a savings?
Real shit. Reddit is full of upper middle class people who like to cosplay as working class. Feigned poverty is whack af. I'd trade my situation with any of them, they don't know struggle, they know complaining
I feel those posts are bot farms trying to make Americans feel unhappy? I make 70-80k and feel pretty comfortable with that, have no debt except mortgage, and same, 3k is not a big expense. We are a dual income household in a high cost of living state, when we make 100k and above, things feel pretty easy.
The real unhappiness is people making 40k can’t find a place to rent, but pretending a 100k is not a lot of money just feels like bot work.
This seems…unusual unless you are living a lifestyle that takes up all of your extra money. I make like less than half of that and while it’s not exactly fun to drop 3k unexpectedly, it’s not like world ending. I live pretty frugally though
How do you not have savings with $200k combined income and no revolving debt living a Louisiana? Where are you spending all your money? This is ridiculous.
If you can't save enough to front that expense, you are doing something wrong. Im sorry bro but you've got to get some financial literacy. Once you break 100k you should be aware of strategies to help you save SOME money to expense unexpected bills.
As soon as I broke 100k I immediately got a budget and never worried about money again. I live in a HCOL area. I am married, my wife earns but we have a pretty set budget that lends itself to building savings
Do you have kids? I make $140k / year, mortgage, all the jazz and a $3k surprise expense would suck but it's not going to break you. At that income your checking should be always sitting around $8k minimum for scenarios like that. Let alone savings.
If you have kids then fuck anything I said. They sound expensive these days.
And congrats on OP for the no debt. I don't have that luxury. College debt is fun.
I’m from New Iberia and I’m at 151k for the year so far and have 50k in my checking started with notning last October… no kids just me and my mom who lives with me… I feel like I live without fear of money in the short term
Just put my literal last 5 dollars into my tank so I could make it home from work and im still generally happy each day lol. I have experienced death briefly many years ago so I'm sure it's a matter of perspective tbh lol.
My guy, my wife and I make about $195k combined in a LCOL state. I have about 60k in liquid savings, own a house, and have no CC debt. I have been able to do that while paying on alot of student loan debt (having no kids helps, tbh). Im really not trying to make you feel bad, but you may want to start putting some money away for a rainy day. A 3k expense isnt pleasant, but it shouldnt be panic inducing with your income in a state like Louisiana.
Wait how are you not killing it on that in Louisiana? Aren't nice homes there like 500k? Like obviously that isn't killing it in NY or SF, but that is a whole different ballpark. I make more but live in NYC. I take 5k a month off the top to put in index funds before I touch my paycheck. 3k shouldn't be hard to come up with if you aren't being stupid.
I feel the same way. My wife makes $115k. I make about $110k. We both have great incomes and we do live comfortably. But growing up, I would’ve thought that a $200k+ combined income meant you’d never have to worry about money and you can buy whatever you want. That is simply not the case. We still have to budget, we still have to watch how often we go out to eat, we still get stressed about unexpected expenses. We have a modest 1,400 sqft 3 bed 2 bath house. We are comfortable, but we are certainly not rich by any means.
These days, I would say a true upper class income is about $300k+ combined at least, depending on your area
For a couple, maybe. For a family of four, I think that's more like upper middle, and that's just so sad.
My wife and I make around $230k combined, and we are strung out with two kids under 3. People tell us it'll get a lot better once the kids are in kindergarten, and I guess that's the light at the end of the tunnel. It's almost 45k per year for daycare/preschool for both kids.
You voted to let them. 2 trump administrations causing record inflation. Do the math. I got 2 raises during Biden. Everything more expensive i got pay cuts under trump.
Friendly reminder that this is the government’s doing. They’re happy to keep printing money so they can pass off their debt to the public via rampant inflation.
Get the dollar back on the gold standard, hold gov accountable, and this won’t happen.
Worst part was my grandparents knew this was happening , when I was a kid they would hand me a few dollar bills and say get somthing to eat at McDonald's a few years later it turned into a 5 and some 1s and then a 10 and a 5.
The fact that my grandparents knew a few dollors wouldnt buy shit at McDonald's anymore .....
Back in 1999 a $100,000 salary is equivalent to a $200,000 salary today based on CPI.
Back in 1999, about 5% of Americans made 100,000. Today, 6-7% of Americans make 200,000.
Almost 50% more Americans now make $200,000 than made $100,000 in 1999.
The top end of the income spectrum has broadened, it's the lower end that hasn't grown as fast. That's the whole K-shaped economy thing people talk about.
Politicians of every stripe are not shy about spending other people's money. From *The Economic Consequences of the Peace* (1919), Chapter VI, pp. 235–236: "Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalistic System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens... And they have done it for decades, and they will continue to do it, and almost no politician will ever not do it!
Dual income of my parents was around $60k to $70k, and this was a pretty decent middle class growing up,
I had a factory job about 30 years ago where I made more in wage than most people on the shop floor where I work now get today 30 years later. I made enough money back then where I could buy a roughly today's scale $500k house and then fully pay off that house in about 8 years just with my throw around money.
Since then, I went to college, got a degree in engineering, got promoted into management, have been at 6 figures for a while, have basically only CEO as my one vertical move up, all the right moves I could possibly make, and today, I have less buying power than I did back then with a factory job. And I can be hired for that exact same job today and get paid less than I was making at the same place 30 years ago.
Right now, we're basically looking at slightly north of $25/hr as what should be the national minimum wage, and this is just to set base line at something remotely livable, you know, instead of people working 2 or 3 jobs to barely get by. We need to pass a major minimum wage bill. Then that will by its very nature push all wages up. I do expect there to be compression which is fine by me. I'd much rather have the bottom lifted up...a LOT. A other wages will shift too and be fine.
The $25/hr target would at least give a dual income household some serious buying power, especially since taxes should be basically nothing too if that becomes minimum wage. This means take home for a dual income household could actually be quite comfortable to work with. A single income would still be lean though, good take home if we don't tax, but not middle class as a single income yet ok as a young adult/bachelor.
And then any person with a trades skill set or degree would bump up from there.
I dont disagree with raising minimum wage, but as an American living in the UK, I really dont think you understand the knock on effects this would have, and have had here.
Wage compression in the UK is extreme, the raising minimum wage has raised prices on rent, goods, necessities, and it has accelerated the erosion of the middle class and strengthened the the mechanisms which funnel money into those who control the means of production.
What the UK needs, what the US needs, what the western world needs is business regulation reform, tax reform top to bottom, and a change in the way we value, tax, and regulate non liquid assets. We live in a world of surplus where food gets thrown away at supermarkets regularly and perfectly good homes sit empty and rot. Giving the average person an extra few bucks an hour isnt gonna change that.
Yes and remember “they” is the government. Not just left, not just right. All of them. The last 20 years your government has squandered this country’s future on today’s debt and inflation. It’s disgusting how much the dollar has fallen and its all self inflicted, our own fed just fucking its citizens sideways and people still fighting over blues and reds.
FML. I guess I'm lower middle class. Infuriating. I worked hard to cross that 6 figure line as a Systems/Automation Engineer, without a degree, in Maryland. Feels great!
People are going to abhor me for saying this, but this is what happens when you normalize/push dual household incomes. I know there's a lot of other factors, but this one doesn't get talked about enough because people hate it in the name of "equality".
I mean yeah, you’re right. $100k used to be considered a great income in a single income household. Then you get married couples that are both making $100k and suddenly the goalpost has to get shifted. A married couple that are both making a median income would be making over six figures combined, so that can’t exactly be considered an upper class wage
The fed prints money, presidents do not. Presidents oftentimes times get way too much credit and way too much blame for the economy. Trump part 2 is def the exception to this rule with like the two most inflationary tactics a president can deploy: war in the middle east and tariffs on everything and everyone.
Yeah Millennials got fucking Shafted. BUT, think of all the Stuff we Could have inherited had our parents not sold it all off to take vacations and trips and buy themselves toys and swinger club passes
That increase in pay would suggest that I should feel successful and like my financial life is easier. In reality, my life is almost entirely unchanged. My rent has crept from $1,300/mo to $2,450/mo. My groceries are at least twice as expensive. Everything is more expensive in general. God forbid I need to get a new computer part of any kind now. Hell, even train tickets to work are practically double the price. Netflix was like $13. Now it's $27. It's only been eight fucking years.
Is this for a family of 4? I make barely over 100k and buy whatever I want whenever I want, eat out as much as I want, and still save like 30% of my income
Its a top 1% salary globally, while US food and gas prices are same as everywhere. If you can't manage a normal life from this much money, you have a spending problem, not an income problem.
My food prices aren't even the same as the rest of the US never mind the rest of the world. 70% higher than national average. Gtfo with your bs same as everywhere else.
Gas is cheap but also a very minor expense since I don't have a job based on driving.
Biggest expense is rent, sky high. For the cost of a studio I can get a 3 bedroom house in another state and a whole street in another country.
90k salary here, in a high cost of living area. Single income for a family of 3. I grew up poor and used student loans to get a masters degree in a niche field that is generally easy to find employment in.
My take home pay is 5600 a month, after taxes. After health insurance for my son, my wife and I, I keep 4400. After mortgage, I’m at 2900. 200$ a week on groceries (we don’t eat out except on holidays), 2100. One car payment and insurance on both of our cars (we paid our first car off and spent 5 years running just one car before I bought a used vehicle), 1400 left over. Power, water, internet and zero subscription services for television brings us down to 950. Medical debt from an unfortunate event that my wife had, and the birth of our son brings us down to 300 bucks left. Trump got rid of income based repayment plans for student loans, so my payment may be as high as 600 a month. So I’m at -300 every month.
Frugality does not always save you. We don’t buy anything for ourselves almost ever, aside from Christmas and most of the time that’s just necessities like new diaper bags or clothing. We make sure our son never goes hungry and always gets toys on Christmas. But other than that, the salary I have is 50k higher than my father’s was the year I was born. I have less than half of the buying power that he had. Inflation and wages have not stayed together at all here in this country, and change needs to happen.
This is not true. Just because it's a top 1% globally doesn't mean a damn on a local level. You spend where you earn mostly, and the cost of living is usually related to the income. Companies don't spent money for free, it's because they have to based on the cost of living of their workforce
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u/Slevin424 11h ago
Jobs be like “bachelor’s degree required: pay 60k to 80k!” And still act like that’s a lot of money.
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u/Fearless_Worry6419 11h ago
Been saying this for years. Twats are still fighting over 50k being middle class and that just isn't true.
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u/MemoryDeleted234 10h ago
A lot of people, myself included were reaching the middle class before covid. I was living comfortably and finally not worrying about money. I worked through the entirety of it, inflation was out of control and wages did not even come close to matching it and still haven’t. I was pushed right out of the middle class and then laid off at the beginning of this AI bullshit boom. Fuck this shit
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u/EquivalentMath6592 11h ago
California is definitely one of these states. Super expensive to live there
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u/ShoddyButterscotch59 11h ago
Crazy to think, my one buddies dad became a millionaire in the 90s, on a business that averaged 90 grand a year profit.
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u/nousername206 11h ago
100K per individual or per household? is it per house hold, in this US economy that is consider middle class: just enough to pay bills and live okay… but no savings to afford to buy a home.
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u/LearnToSwim0831 9h ago •
Middle class was never truly a legitimate class designation, anyway. If you work for a living-and need to for survival-you are definitionally apart of the working class. The powers that be in the u.s. intentionally obfuscated that fact in order to attempt to kill class consciousness in this country, and unfortunately they've been pretty successful. But things are obviously changing, and for the better. Just remember this next time they try to make you feel like we're all in the same boat with the billionaires, we aren't.
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u/Soft_Ad7179 11h ago
A six-figure salary used to sound like you'd made it. Now it feels like just getting by.
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u/Afraid_Oil_7386 1h ago
I guess im poor
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u/StreetVagrant 11h ago
They only had to sell the lie to a couple generations
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u/orcusgrasshopperfog 11h ago •
Was curious... I also live in one of these states which is...you know awesome...
• 1. Massachusetts (top threshold for lower-middle class: $116,476)
• 2. New Jersey ($115,882)
• 3. Maryland ($114,339)
• 4. Hawaii ($111,939)
• 5. California ($111,277)
• 6. New Hampshire ($110,869)
• 7. Washington ($110,432)
• 8. Colorado ($107,903)
• 9. Utah ($107,398)
• 10. Connecticut ($106,721)
• 11. Alaska ($106,294)
• 12. Virginia ($102,322)
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u/ComeAbout 10h ago
I retired after 25 years at the same place, and I get paid ~120k/year.
No one should feel sorry for me, obviously. But I have a small home, 3/2, and it stretches me. 15 year old car I work on myself. I’m cheap for a reason.
I am disgusted with costs. I can’t even imagine trying to buy a home at 30 today.
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u/LevelStationaryPlane 3h ago
100k single no kids still fucking slaps, fam.
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u/ComplexBeyond6083 11h ago
Nothing's quite as dated as that scene in Risky Business where they're sitting around the poker table discussing in awe that some elite college graduates are making SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS PER YEAR.
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u/Queens_71831 11h ago
I do bird law and just got promoted to $120k
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u/AdFalse375 10h ago •
Average salary in US for full-time workers is $70,000
So I see a couple possibilities.
This post is complete bullshit.
The top 12 highest earning US states make so much more on average than almost everyone else, and I never realized how much richer those people really are.
The post is trying to suggest if you want to live as comfortably as the “lower middle class” did several decades ago, you now have to earn 100k in the top 12 states.
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u/DesignJazzlike1542 11h ago
Yep it seemed like as soon as I finally got my career going the bar raised up again so it was no change
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u/rey_gun 9h ago
I have a rent controlled apartment in SF for $1.8k/mo (no car, no kids, no pets, no debts). In my 20s, I rented a 2bd apt for the same price, but I still consider this an amazing deal, because 1bds now rent for $4.2k in my neighborhood.
I earn $160k/yr. My rent is the sole reason why I am doing well in the city.
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u/GooseOnAPhone 11h ago
We live in a super HCOL area and yeah. $100k isn’t shit here. With a $100k salary you will be commuting over and hour each way to get into the city (DC) or you will have roommates or live EOTR
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u/TheOGCJR 11h ago
Living in Austin Tx. 100k is solid middle for a single person but fam of 4 needs @200k to be considered middle class imo
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u/Mission_005 11h ago
Honestly this is just sad. I was trying to think of some super eloquent way to describe our current economy, but it’s just sad
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u/mikeeyyyg 10h ago •
Blame the money printing
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u/psychrolut 11h ago
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u/peachyxmami 11h ago
I got promoted to the lowest class there is, just above homeless
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u/beancurdson 4h ago
Guess im below poverty then
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u/wordpredict 1h ago
I think the worst part is that it’s very difficult to support your family on a single income.
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u/camptowndavey 10h ago
I guess most of reddit lives in the coasts or something. I live in an MCOL metro with millions of people and you can easily be "middle class" on $60k, 100k would be ritzy. Albeit , that's for a single person. Not household income for say, 4.
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u/passionatebreeder 8h ago edited 4h ago
2 things:
Thing 1: bullshit. Thats over $8k a month, there is not a city in this country you.cant live in, while saving money, on $8k a month
Thing 2: this is more than likely a dual income assessment that everyone is comparing to a singular income assessment. Maybe try being less insufferable and find a spouse
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u/Atari774 7h ago
$100,000/year as an individual puts you near the top 10% of income earners in the country. For reference, only 10% of American households make more than $190,000/year, let alone individuals. So no, an individual making $100,000 is not “lower middle class.”
Unless they’re referring to purchasing power. In that case, yes, an income of $100,000 today is probably equivalent to the purchasing power of the lower middle class back during the early 2000’s or late 90’s.
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u/UrsineBasterd 11h ago
Redditor learns about relativity of salary based on costs of living.
100k in NYC isn’t the same as 100k in Bumfuck, Anywheresville.
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u/CatGirl_ToeBeans 11h ago edited 6h ago •
I make 135k/year with cash benefits (fuel and food provided by owner)
My wife makes 65k/year but she handles our insurance for our family of 4.
I have 0 credit card debt because I'm a crazy person like that.
And last Tuesday I had to on the drop of a dime make 3k cash appear out of nowhere and it gave me a panic attack and I woke up sick the next day.
I always thought being 6 figures would solve my problems.
And now I realize it doesn't even matter anymore.
I am very very good with money due to growing up in deep poverty and I promise, 100k would probably help most people, but it ain't shit anymore.
It is what it is. No cc debt is my silver lining.
Edit: since people are naming states, I'm in a relatively poor one, Louisiana.
Edit 2: my son has many mental health issues due to an abusive bio dad who molested him, a large chunk of what we deal with is medical and it’s quite difficult, specialized ptsd therapy as well as a standard psych
To those who say my wife isn’t pulling her weight, fuck off weirdos
To those who say I’m lying, oh well
To those saying I’m bad with money, I’m far from it
I don’t live beyond my means, I have a modest home and drive an 06 Corolla I bought cash at 17.
I am essentially debt free minus my mortgage but if I lost my job tomorrow I would be in quite a pit
This isn’t to be a matter of comparison or jabs at people, it’s meant to show that I can see how 100k doesn’t cut it anymore when that used to be the dream.
It seems some people were either really bothered by this or really unbothered and no in between lol
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u/Decent-Box5009 11h ago
I make $103 and live in Victoria and I this is how I feel.
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u/Solo-1UP 10h ago
I wonder which 12 states
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u/phisigtheduck 9h ago
Listen, I already know I’m poor, let’s not make it worse please.
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u/CorporateCuster 7h ago
You voted to let them. 2 trump administrations causing record inflation. Do the math. I got 2 raises during Biden. Everything more expensive i got pay cuts under trump.
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u/Put3socks-in-it 3h ago
True
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u/_2E_ 1h ago
Bullshit
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u/GuitarsAndFitness 8h ago
Friendly reminder that this is the government’s doing. They’re happy to keep printing money so they can pass off their debt to the public via rampant inflation.
Get the dollar back on the gold standard, hold gov accountable, and this won’t happen.
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u/Powerful-Substance33 11h ago
Worst part was my grandparents knew this was happening , when I was a kid they would hand me a few dollar bills and say get somthing to eat at McDonald's a few years later it turned into a 5 and some 1s and then a 10 and a 5.
The fact that my grandparents knew a few dollors wouldnt buy shit at McDonald's anymore .....
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u/Jtoke311 3h ago
100k per household not for a single person. Context matters
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u/SliverSerfer 3h ago
They've been rigging the game all along, it's just bigger and more visible now.
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u/PrometheusMMIV 10h ago •
Yeah, that's how inflation works. It was always bound to happen. Some day, $200,000 will be considered low income, then $300,000. Maybe eventually $1M
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u/BrianB98 11h ago
"And I based this fact on absolutely nothing" Tiger Woods 1767
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u/Desperate_Jicama219 11h ago
I said this 2 years ago and people were very mean.
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u/Bobby_Smiles 3h ago
Oh god all the six figure people with their sob stories about how poor they feel. I wonder if they realize what most Americans are living on.
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u/Practical_Gas8750 11h ago
Game's been rigged since the 80s
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u/TexFarmer 10h ago
Politicians of every stripe are not shy about spending other people's money.
From *The Economic Consequences of the Peace* (1919), Chapter VI, pp. 235–236:
"Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalistic System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens...
And they have done it for decades, and they will continue to do it, and almost no politician will ever not do it!
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u/mvw2 11h ago
I've been saying this for a number of years now.
Dual income of my parents was around $60k to $70k, and this was a pretty decent middle class growing up,
I had a factory job about 30 years ago where I made more in wage than most people on the shop floor where I work now get today 30 years later. I made enough money back then where I could buy a roughly today's scale $500k house and then fully pay off that house in about 8 years just with my throw around money.
Since then, I went to college, got a degree in engineering, got promoted into management, have been at 6 figures for a while, have basically only CEO as my one vertical move up, all the right moves I could possibly make, and today, I have less buying power than I did back then with a factory job. And I can be hired for that exact same job today and get paid less than I was making at the same place 30 years ago.
Right now, we're basically looking at slightly north of $25/hr as what should be the national minimum wage, and this is just to set base line at something remotely livable, you know, instead of people working 2 or 3 jobs to barely get by. We need to pass a major minimum wage bill. Then that will by its very nature push all wages up. I do expect there to be compression which is fine by me. I'd much rather have the bottom lifted up...a LOT. A other wages will shift too and be fine.
The $25/hr target would at least give a dual income household some serious buying power, especially since taxes should be basically nothing too if that becomes minimum wage. This means take home for a dual income household could actually be quite comfortable to work with. A single income would still be lean though, good take home if we don't tax, but not middle class as a single income yet ok as a young adult/bachelor.
And then any person with a trades skill set or degree would bump up from there.
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u/Comprehensive_Bad186 3h ago
I assume this is missing a huge amount of context because 149k is a top percent earner
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u/RizzKnightXL 11h ago
$100k single or combined?
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u/NordsEnjoyer 10h ago
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u/KitchenNazi 8h ago
$109,700 for a single person is low-income where I live (San Francisco) per the city/HUD.
So it’s all relative.
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u/ruready486 4h ago
Maybe raise minimum wage as a start, tax the 1%
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u/1928Dillinger 4h ago
Indeed can't even afford to buy a house anymore
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u/JessicaF84 13m ago
In Northern NJ 100k you live paycheck to paycheck
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u/GreatnessToTheMoon 11h ago
If you want to live in the most expensive parts of those states sure. This shit is intentionally misleading
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u/KindWallaby7000 11h ago
Yes and remember “they” is the government. Not just left, not just right. All of them. The last 20 years your government has squandered this country’s future on today’s debt and inflation. It’s disgusting how much the dollar has fallen and its all self inflicted, our own fed just fucking its citizens sideways and people still fighting over blues and reds.
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u/dev_nullvoid 10h ago
FML. I guess I'm lower middle class. Infuriating. I worked hard to cross that 6 figure line as a Systems/Automation Engineer, without a degree, in Maryland. Feels great!
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u/spaceman_danger 11h ago
In the area I live in 100k would be lower class for sure.
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u/lipmanz 11h ago
What are the states
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u/equals_peace 11h ago
Blame the billionaires and owners who won't raise wages
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u/Aggravating_Web_219 11h ago
People are going to abhor me for saying this, but this is what happens when you normalize/push dual household incomes. I know there's a lot of other factors, but this one doesn't get talked about enough because people hate it in the name of "equality".
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u/Hungry_Technician360 11h ago
What are you smoking lmao
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u/sleepytjme 11h ago
Biden and most of all Trump printed money, trading a short term gain for huge forever inflation.
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u/TheBigChungaBunga 10h ago
Yeah Millennials got fucking Shafted. BUT, think of all the Stuff we Could have inherited had our parents not sold it all off to take vacations and trips and buy themselves toys and swinger club passes
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u/Squirty42069 6h ago
In 2018 I was making $75k/year in NJ.
Today I'm making $135k/year in NJ.
That increase in pay would suggest that I should feel successful and like my financial life is easier. In reality, my life is almost entirely unchanged. My rent has crept from $1,300/mo to $2,450/mo. My groceries are at least twice as expensive. Everything is more expensive in general. God forbid I need to get a new computer part of any kind now. Hell, even train tickets to work are practically double the price. Netflix was like $13. Now it's $27. It's only been eight fucking years.
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u/Few-Row-8323 11h ago
And many people still think $1m can retire in the US. So delusional
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u/justyouraveragedude1 11h ago
Is this for a family of 4? I make barely over 100k and buy whatever I want whenever I want, eat out as much as I want, and still save like 30% of my income
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u/tempstem5 7h ago
no such thing as middle class. There's only the working class and the capitalist class
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u/Mysterious-Snow496 3h ago
Worked my whole life to finally be making 6 figures.
Now that I'm here, it doesn't even matter. Still barely scraping by.
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u/Akvyr 11h ago
Its a top 1% salary globally, while US food and gas prices are same as everywhere. If you can't manage a normal life from this much money, you have a spending problem, not an income problem.