‘The Death of the Middle Class,” “The Curious Case of The Disappearing Middle Class,” “The Middle Class: Dying or Already Dead?” Surely you’ve seen some of these dramatic titles on your local news for a segment about what is going on with the middle class in America.
It is a topic of constant discussion, especially if you live in one of the ten states that 24/7 Wall Street lists as the states where the middle class is struggling the most.
In order to compile this list, 24/7 Wall Street used data on the average pre-tax income earned by each income quintile from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey. The middle class was defined as the middle 20 percent of earners. The growth of average income for the middle class was then compared with the growth in income for the upper class to identify trends.
Arkansas, New York, and California all found themselves on this list with middle income growth between 2010 and 2014 at -0.8 percent, -1.0 percent, and -1.2 percent respectively. However, the state that took the number one spot had a middle income growth of -3.1 percent.
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