Middle class salary?

MattMattMattUK

The point on incomes not increasing is an important one, especially when one factors in the triple lock for pensions and the huge increases in minimum wage/national living wage, which was £6.08 in 2012. Because of the bottom end of earners and pensioners skewing the figures if you look at earnings by centile you see two things, the first is what would typically be regarded as the hollowing out of the middle class in wage terms, as an example middle class professions such as teaching have seen a near 40% cut in real terms wages over the last twenty years, nurses and doctors a similar amount. Lower and middle management have seen drops in real terms income and a narrowing of their pay compared to their subordinates.

The second is the significant increase in both the number of people off work on long term sickness and disability and the number of economically inactive, the former group is higher than any other European nation and indicates something wrong with the way those benefits are allocated (especially as we do not adequately support the disabled) and the latter is also the highest in Europe and causes a dead weight on the economy.

We also have the highest levels of mortgage debt in Europe as well as the highest levels of unsecured debt in Europe, that means that we also see more of people's incomes wasted on debt interest further diminishing their real terms spending power. Most of that debt is carried by those who would typically be regarded as upper working class or lower middle class, in economic terms the C1 and C2 groups, although some is with B, usually in the form of car finance of some kind and a small amount with D and E, although not significant as they do not have the borrowing capacity.

Ksw3

I think it's also very personal, I grew up in a council house. Middle class to me was owning your own house (with or without mortgage).