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Long Live the Statistical Middle Class!

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: editor{at}toomuchonline.org.

	Abstract

Many labor activists consider "middle class" a sloppy formulation that serves to marginalize working-class history and heritage—and obfuscate the exploitation of one class by another. But "middle class," as a concept, actually does double duty. The middle class exists as both a historic construct and a statistical reality. Middle-class people, statistically speaking, earn incomes squarely in the middle of a society’s income distribution. The higher the share of a society’s populace that falls within a "middle class" range, researchers on economic inequality have shown, the healthier the society for working people—and everyone else as well.

First published on April 23, 2009
Labor Studies Journal 2009, doi:10.1177/0160449X09335473


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