working class

Examples of working class in the following topics:

• The Working Class

  • Secretaries, farmers, and hair stylists may all be considered members of the working class.
  • In the United States, the parameters of the working class remain vaguely defined and are contentious.
  • In the class models devised by sociologists, the working class comprises between 30 percent and 35 percent of the population, roughly the same percentage as the lower middle class.
  • Due to differences between middle and working-class cultures, working-class college students may face "culture shock" upon entering the post-secondary education system, with its "middle class" culture.
  • Explain how differences in class culture may affect working-class students who enter the post-secondary education system

• Capitalism, class, privilege, and oppression

  • Class plays an important role in the forms of privilege and oppression.
  • These inequalities result from a class system based on increasing gaps in income, wealth, and power between the few people on top and the masses of people at the bottom.
  • Capitalism causes competition, stress, and anxiety among members of the working class and middle class, as people do not have any control over their work and whether they can keep their jobs.
  • Despite the myth that hard work leads to getting ahead and making it, for the most part people have little power to improve their class position.
  • Research shows people are as likely to move downward as they are upward in the class system.

• Consequences of Social Class

  • Studies have found that upper class employees tend to feel that they are shown respect and given creative opportunities at work, and consequently report higher job satisfaction than lower class employees.
  • In the United States, a person's social class has far-reaching consequences.
  • Social class in the United States is a controversial issue, with social scientists disagreeing over models, definitions, and even the basic question of whether or not distinct classes exist.
  • Many Americans believe in a simple three-class model that includes the rich or upper class, the middle class, and the poor or working class.
  • People in the highest SES bracket, generally referred to as the upper class, likely have better access to healthcare, marry people of higher social status, attend more prestigious schools, and are more influential in politics than people in the middle class or working class.

• Social Class

  • Many Americans believe in a simple three-class model that includes upper class, the middle class, and the lower class or working class.
  • Thought of this way, once individuals identify as being within a class group they begin to adhere to the behaviors they expect of that class.
  • Thus, a person who considers him or herself to be upper class will dress differently from a person who considers him or herself to be working class — one may wear a business suit on a daily basis, while the other wears jeans, for example.
  • By adhering to class expectations, individuals create sharper distinctions between classes than may otherwise exist.
  • Sociologists studying class distinctions since the 1970s have found that social classes each have unique cultural traits.

• Social Class in the U.S.

  • When an elite politician enters a working class social scene, their apparent unfamiliarity can be seen as evidence of disparate class cultures.
  • Many Americans believe in a simple three-class model that includes the rich or upper class, the middle class, and the poor or working class.
  • The working class (30%) earns $19,000 to $45,000.
  • The lower class (27%) is divided into the working poor (13%, earning $9000 to $18,000) and the underclass (14%, earning under $9000).
  • Another model for thinking about social class in the United States attributes the following general characteristics to each tier: The upper class has vast accumulated wealth and significant control over corporations and political institutions, and their privilege is usually inherited; the corporate elite is a class of high-salaried stockholders, such as CEOs, who do not necessarily have inherited privilege but have achieved high status through their careers; the upper middle class consists of highly educated salaried professionals whose occupations are held in high esteem, such as lawyers, engineers, and professors; the middle class is the most vaguely defined and largest social class, and is generally thought to include people in mid-level managerial positions or relatively low status professional positions, such as high school teachers and small business owners; the working class generally refers to those without college degrees who do unskilled service work, such as being a sales clerk or housecleaner, and it includes most people whose incomes fall below the poverty line.

• Class Structure in the U.S.

  • Many Americans recognize a simple three-tier model that includes the upper class, the middle class, and the lower or working class.
  • The middle class (40%) is divided into upper-middle class (14%, earning $76,000 or more per year) and the lower-middle class (26%, earning $46,000 to $75,000 per year).
  • The working class (30%) earns $19,000 to $45,000 per year.
  • The lower class (27%) is divided into working poor (13%, earning $9000 to 18,000 per year) and underclass (14%, earning under $9000 per year).
  • A commonly used model for thinking about social classes in the U.S. attributes the following general characteristics to each tier: the upper class has vast accumulated wealth and significant control over corporations and political institutions, and their privilege is usually inherited; the corporate elite consists of high-salaried stockholders, such as corporate CEOs, who did not necessarily inherit privilege but have achieved high status through their careers; the upper-middle class consists of highly educated salaried professionals whose occupations are held in high esteem, such as lawyers, engineers, and professors; the middle class (the most vaguely defined and largest social class) is generally thought to include people in mid-level managerial positions or relatively low status professional positions, such as high school teachers and small business owners; the working class generally refers to those without college degrees who do low level service work, such as working as a sales clerk or housekeeper, and includes most people whose incomes fall below the poverty line.

• Class

  • Common models used to think about social class come from Marxist theory: common stratum theory, which divides society into the upper, middle, and working class; and structural-functionalism.
  • In Marxist theory, the class structure of the capitalist mode of production is characterized by two main classes: the bourgeoisie, or the capitalists who own the means of production, and the much larger proletariat (or working class) who must sell their own labor power for wages.
  • The lower or working class is sometimes separated into those who are employed as wage or hourly workers, and an underclass—those who are long-term unemployed and/or homeless, especially those receiving welfare from the state.
  • Members of the working class are sometimes called blue-collar workers.
  • Compare and contrast Marx's understanding of 'class' with Weber's class model

• The Lower Middle Class

  • They usually hold college degrees, but often have no graduate degree; they make comfortable incomes, but have low accumulated wealth; their work is largely self-directed, but is not high status.
  • In American society, the middle class is often divided into the lower-middle class and upper-middle class.
  • The lower-middle class (also sometimes simply referred to as the middle class) consists of roughly one third of households—it is roughly twice as large as the upper-middle and upper classes.
  • The lower-middle class is among the largest social classes, rivaled only by the working class, and it is thought to be growing.
  • They usually hold college degrees, but often do not hold graduate degrees; they make comfortable incomes, but have low accumulated wealth; their work is largely self-directed, but is not high status.

• The Lower Class

  • Store cashiers, seasonal farmhands, and tollbooth operators may all be considered members of the lower class.
  • As with all social classes in the United States, the lower class is loosely defined, and its boundaries and definitions are subject to debate.
  • Those who are employed in lower class occupations are often colloquially referred to as the working poor.
  • Generally, lower class individuals work easily-filled employment positions that have little prestige or economic compensation.
  • For all of these reasons, lower class households are the most economically vulnerable in the United States.

• The Upper Middle Class

  • The upper-middle class refers to people within the middle class that have high educational attainment, high salaries, and high status jobs.
  • This is in contrast to the term "lower-middle class," which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum, and to the broader term "middle class. " There is considerable debate as to how to define the upper-middle class.
  • There is some debate over what exactly the term "upper-middle class" means, but in academic models, the term generally applies to highly educated, salaried professionals whose work is largely self-directed.
  • The U.S. upper-middle class consists mostly of white-collar professionals who have a high degree of autonomy in their work.
  • In addition to autonomy in their work, above-average incomes, and advanced educations, the upper middle class also tends to be powerful; members are influential in setting trends and shaping public opinion.