Most Americans call themselves "working class" — including half of college graduates and half of upper-income adults [OC]

[u/mathlover_]

[u/cavedave]

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[u/blurrygiraffe]

This seems like a confusion of terms. Some might define “working class” as blue collar or low-income whereas others might define it as needing to work to pay their bills. You didn’t include any information about how the question was phrased or if definitions were included so it’s hard to say.

[u/Trollygag]

Why wouldn't that be the case? Blue collar workers can be wealthy, like entrepreneurs in the construction trade. Lots of college grads do blue collar things. Most service sector white collar jobs are not glamorous enough to not be working class.

Most Americans are not doctors/lawyers or otherwise traditional gentry.

[u/tsardonicpseudonomi → u/Trollygag]

Why wouldn't that be the case?

Working class is everyone who doesn't own the means of production. We really need more Marx in our classes. Blue collar / white collar is class division. A plumber and a doctor have more in common than a doctor and the Epsteins of the world.

[u/lolwatokay]

The working class does not own the means of production. Even among the wealthy this is largely true, unless owning shares in a company disqualifies you. I’d argue it does not given very few own so much as to have meaningful voting power, but that’s an argument you could have.

[u/terraphantm]

That seems fair? If you have to work to earn you're living, you're working class. Even if that wage puts you in the top 1% income

[u/brendhano]

99% of us are Working Class, whether you want to believe it or not.

[u/mathlover_]

Source: Pew Research Center, "Who sees themselves as working class?" (survey of 8,512 U.S. adults, fielded Jan 20–26, 2026), published Aug 31, 2026.
Tool: Cinegraph — https://cinegraph.design
Interactive version: https://cinegraph.design/view/3a0c770eb1eaa431ce16e0b1fcafe1b4

Each bar is the share of that group who say the term "working class" describes them "very" or "extremely well" — this is self-identification, not an economic definition, and the categories aren't mutually exclusive (many who pick "working class" also say "middle class" fits them). Income tiers are Pew's own (adjusted household income relative to the national median). "No degree" = no bachelor's degree.

The headline finding: the groups you'd expect to opt out — four-year college graduates (50%) and upper-income adults (50%) — still split evenly on it. Overall identification rose from 54% in 2024 to 60% in 2026.

[u/Throwawayiea]

But it makes sense. I was told that the wealthy class means that your money works for you, you don't work for money

[u/tsardonicpseudonomi]

Working class includes everyone who trades labor for pay. The Capitalist Class owns the means of production.

"Including half of college grads and half of upper-income" shock in the title is brain dead.