A new Pew Research Center analysis has found that 60% of U.S. adults say the term “working class” describes them well, an identity widely adopted by people across all income and educational groups, including half of both Americans who have a bachelor’s degree and those who are upper income. The data were published August 31.
A label that stretches across the income scale
Working-class identification has ticked up from a few years ago: in 2024, 54% of Americans said the term described them well, and 60% do so today. The shift is seen across many demographic, socioeconomic and political groups.
Americans without four-year college degrees are considerably more likely to identify as working class, with 66% embracing the label compared with 50% of adults with bachelor’s degrees.
Middle-income Americans are the most likely to describe themselves as working class, at 67%. But 57% of lower-income adults and half of upper-income Americans also say the term describes them well.
Those with lower financial stress are less likely to describe themselves as working class. Even so, half of Americans who consistently pay their bills in full, have several months of emergency savings and can comfortably meet their expenses consider themselves working class, Pew found.
Occupation and blue-collar workers
Among people Pew classified as blue-collar workers, 77% identified as working class, as do a majority of those working in other occupations (61%).
The findings illustrate how elastic the meaning of “working class” has become in the United States. The phrase can refer to income, educational attainment or occupation. It can also encompass virtually anyone who primarily depends on working for a living, regardless of how much they earn.
The broadening of the label has real implications for how workers think about their careers and professional lives. Research has already found that how people frame their work affects daily engagement, and a 2026 study on commuting and psychological distress found that structural elements of the job, including how far workers travel, shape wellbeing as much as the work itself.
Partisanship plays a strong role
Republicans are more likely than Democrats to identify as working class, even after taking economics, occupation, education and other factors into account. Overall, 67% of Republicans and Republican leaners say “working class” describes them well, as do 55% of Democrats.
Among blue-collar workers specifically, 82% of Republicans with blue-collar jobs identify as working class, compared with 72% of Democrats in those types of jobs. Among all other workers, 68% of Republicans and 55% of Democrats identify with the term.
Overall, 62% of White adults, 59% of Hispanic adults, 54% of Black adults and 52% of Asian adults identify as working class. Pew found that the partisan gap in working-class identification is particularly pronounced among upper-income adults.
What the shift means for career culture
The Pew analysis examines which Americans do and do not describe themselves as working class, focusing on demographic and attitudinal factors including partisan identification, educational attainment, income, and race and ethnicity.
The findings come from a survey of 8,512 U.S. adults conducted Jan. 20, 26, 2026, through the Center’s American Trends Panel.
The findings suggest that “working class” is functioning less as an economic descriptor and more as a cultural signal about how people relate to their labor. As career identities grow more fluid, including through the rise of side work and portfolio careers noted elsewhere in labor research, the label appears to travel with workers even when their paychecks do not match it.
How people think about job creativity and engagement, covered in work on hobbies and on-the-job creativity, may be one dimension of the broader shift in how Americans narrate their own working lives.
Working-class identification does vary by education and income, it is highest among Americans without a four-year degree and those who are middle income, but seeing oneself as working class also has a heavy political tinge and differs by race and ethnicity.
