The Term Working Class Is Useless
Too many political analysts and pollsters are relying on education to define the working class, and it’s leading us to the wrong conclusions.
The New Republic
By Monica Potts
For some researchers, especially economists and sociologists, working class has always referred to people who earn hourly wages, often in unskilled or low-skilled jobs (or jobs perceived as not requiring skills, which is an entirely other conversation). Their bosses largely control their workdays. They don’t own assets, except maybe the house they live in, and don’t have investments or another financial cushion to rely on if they lose their jobs. They can work their way into financial security over time but are vulnerable to their factory or office closing—and, even worse, to finding that their skills aren’t easily transferable or are becoming entirely outdated in a rapidly changing labor market. They just don’t have a lot of economic power. They’re not quite in poverty, but also not quite middle class.
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The Institute for Women’s Policy Research relies on a similar definition, but one that emphasizes lower incomes. “One definition that IWPR considers for working-class workers is workers making two-thirds or less than the median wage, and who might be employed in manual labor or jobs that don’t require a college degree,” said Kate Bahn, the organization’s chief economist and senior vice president of research. “More than half of those workers are women, and a disproportionate share of those workers are Black and Latinx workers.”