Middle-Class Household

A Middle-Class Household is a household that is near the median income household (for a household population).

• AKA: Middle-Income Household.
• Context:
  • It can (typically) be a member of a Middle-Class Population.
  • It can range from being a Lower Middle-Class Household to being an Upper Middle-Class Household.
• Example(s):
  • household with income that is 67% to 200% of a median income household.
  • a Third and Fourth-Quintile Income Household (in the third quintile and fourth quintile).
  • an American Middle-Class Household, Chinese Middle-Class Household, ...
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a Lower-Class Household.
  • an Upper-Class Household.
• See: Middle-Class Squeeze, Social Hierarchy, Socio-Economic Status.

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References

2015

• http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21631129-it-001-who-are-really-getting-ahead-america-forget-1
  • QUOTE: The authors examine the share of total wealth held by the bottom 90% of families relative to those at the very top. Because the bottom half of all families almost always has no net wealth, the share of wealth held by the bottom 90% is an effective measure of “middle class” wealth, or that held by those from the 50th to the 90th percentile.
• http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/09/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground/
  • QUOTE: In this report, “middle-income” households are defined as those with an income that is 67% to 200% (two-thirds to double) of the overall median household income, after incomes have been adjusted for household size.7 Lower-income households have incomes less than 67% of the median, and upper-income households have incomes that are more than double the median.

2013

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_class
  • The middle class is a class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class. The common measures of what constitutes middle class vary significantly among cultures.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-class_squeeze
  • The middle-class squeeze is the situation where increases in wages fail to keep up with inflation for middle-income earners, while at the same time, the phenomenon fails to have a similar impact on the top wage earners.

2010

• (Wolff, 2010) ⇒ Edward N Wolff. (2010). “Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States: Rising Debt and the Middle-class Squeeze-an Update to 2007." Levy Economics Institute Working Papers Series.
  • QUOTE: Nowhere is the middle-class squeeze more vividly demonstrated than in their rising debt. As noted above, the ratio of debt-to-net-worth of the middle three wealth quintiles rose from 37 percent in 1983 to 46 percent in 2001 and then jumped to 61 percent in 2007. Correspondingly, their debt-to-income rose from 67 percent in 1983 to 100 percent in 2001 and then zoomed up to 157 percent in 2007!

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