Americans can determine if they are middle class with new income calculator
WASHINGTON - A new income calculator from Pew Research Center will allow Americans to figure out if they are in the middle class.
The calculator lets users compare themselves to their metropolitan area, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget, and among Americans nationwide overall, based on the average size of a U.S. household, as well as compare on the basis of education, age, race or ethnicity, and marital status.
A man wearing a protective mask uses an ATM amid the coronavirus pandemic on April 17, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Pew reported, based on 2018 data, 52% of Americans are in middle-income households; 29% are in lower-income households; 19% are in upper-income households.
An area's cost-of-living determines which Americans are middle class.
In Jackson, Tennessee, with a price level in 2018 that was 19.0% less than the national average, you need an income of only about $39,300 to be middle class.
In San Francisco, the country's current tech center, you need a reported income of about $63,800, or 31.6% more than the American norm, to be considered middle class.
The report doesn't cover the great tragedies this year as many Americans are under significant financial pressure from the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.
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A Pew Research Center survey conducted April 29-May 5, 2020 reported 36% of lower-income Americans and 28% of middle-income Americans and 22% of upper-income Americans lost a job or took a pay cut due to the coronavirus outbreak.
In a Center survey conducted in April 2020, only 23% of lower-income Americans, 48% of middle-income Americans and 75% of upper-income Americans said they had surplus funds that could last three months.