People Making Six-Figure Salaries Used to Be Considered Rich—Now Households Earning Nearly $200,000 a Year Aren’t Even Considered Upper-Class in Some U.S. States
25th March 2025
Fortune, a Voice of the Crust.
How much money you need to make to be “rolling in it” has changed—earning nearly $200,000 a year isn’t even considered upper-class in some U.S. states. Being considered rich is becoming more gate-kept among the 1% raking in millions every day.
According to a recent SmartAsset analysis of 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data, a household making $199,000 a year in Massachusetts and New Jersey would still be considered middle-class.
Even in Mississippi, which has the lowest median middle-class income in the U.S., households would need to earn over $108,000 to be considered well-off.
The salary range of middle-class homes, representing about 52% of American workers, is of course huge. The lowest salary considered to be in the socioeconomic class is $36,132 in one state, while the highest hits a staggering $199,716 in another. But in every single state in America, a $100,000 salary is no longer enough to be considered “upper-class”—and families with six-figure incomes are even struggling to get by.
Thank you, Joe Biden. Thank you, Barak Obama. Thank you, Democrats everywhere.