Pew released income ranges for the middle class by family size. They determined the numbers by taking 2/3 of the median up to double the median. Median for 2016 was $55,775.
Family of 4 range: $48,083 to $144,251
To me the upper end looks high but perhaps that is to cover the high cost of living parts of the country.
Salary numbers don’t really mean a lot without considering COL.
I don’t remember where I saw it, but I saw a comparison of various salaries across the country adjusted for COL. It was very interesting.
Here is my source http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/13/heres-how-much-you-have-to-earn-to-be-considered-middle-class.html
I found this data for the San Fran area which is generally considered high cost of living.
2015 data http://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/california/san-francisco/
median household $88,518
median family $103,237
per capita $46,511
For comparison purposes I found Des Moines Iowa http://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/iowa/des-moines/
2015 data
Median household income $62,024
median family $75,521
per capita $32,520
This chart was in a magazine touting the DFW area, so take that FWIW, but it compared the salaries of millenials and adjusted them for how far they go considering COL.
https://www.dmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/CHART-power-of-millennial-money.jpg
“Salary numbers don’t really mean a lot without considering COL.”
I think that is why Pew gives a “salary range.”
Family of 4 range: $48,083 to $144,251
The upper end of the range you quoted is nearly triple the lower end. With a bracket that large, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Just a made up example because I don’t feel like doing research.
$48k for family of 4 in Tupelo Mississippi would be middle class.
$144k for family of 4 in Boston, Ma wouid be middle class.
The difference is due to the difference in COL in different areas of the country - with housing costs being the most significant difference.
Yea, in the study, HI has one of the highest COL at +22%. I’m not surprised that people are falling/sliding out of the middle class. We read about it in this thread a lot, with young grads having a hard time getting jobs and getting jobs with low starting salaries and the crazy cost of housing in lots of places where there are jobs.
Cool, I’m solidly middle class for the first time since I was very young.
I’d probably feel a lot more middle class if it weren’t for all those darned medical bills 
The median home price in Austin, Texas’ highest home prices, is $335K.
The median home price in San Jose, CA is $1085K, almost 4 times the price of Austin.
People buying these homes probably feel they are middle class in both states.
I think in San Jose a family making in the low $100,000s can’t afford that house. Someone who can afford may think they are middle class because they purchased the median but they aren’t.
Edited because of fat fingers
Unfortunately, the links don’t explain what methodology PEW uses to arrive at their figures . I took it more to be a range - lower to upper middle class - than to factor in cost of living adjustments. Also, the PEW data cited seems to be from 1999(!) vs. the COL numbers being more recent data.
Middle class really does depend on where you live. We live in one of the wealthiest areas of the US (by happenstance, not planning), so although we make a fair amount, we feel very middle class.
Serious question- where do your fire fighters and teachers live? Do they have to commute a long way?
We’re in a subdivision that runs right at the median housing price for our high COL county. With $500/mo in debt and a $20k downpayment (basically young buyers with one car payment and no student loans), it takes $110k in income to buy in our neighborhood. With PITI, it’s just under $2800/mo.
A lot of our firefighters and teachers live in the far north end of the county or the next county north.
I live smack dab in between two expensive subdivisions but I’m not in either of them so my house is significantly cheaper than those around us. But we benefit from the fantastic school district.
Michigan is pretty low COL depending on where you are. I spend the same for my mortgage on my 3 bedroom home (with an in-laws section attached) about 20 minutes outside of Ann Arbor as I would for a decently sized 1 bedroom apt in Ann Arbor. I rent out the in-laws section (which is basically a studio apartment attached to my house) and one bedroom in the home and that’s basically my mortgage covered.
But I made the choice to commute to Ann Arbor and own a home rather than live there and rent an apartment. The hour commute (which includes parking and busing in) is the trade-off.
We live very comfortably on the very low end of that middle income range. No, we’re not at all rich and we are significantly in student debt but we never go without and I never worry that I won’t be able to pay our bills. OTOH, we don’t go on vacations, my car is almost a decade old and his is almost 2 decades, and our only real splurge is eating/take out.
But we are only an illness away from bankruptcy. I can’t take a semester off because I can’t lose that funding and I can’t afford COBRA. Sure, we’d go on medicaid but I make around 85% of our income. That is a source of worry.
