If you're making $100,000/year, you're very likely upper class in the U.S. Of course, this doesn't work well in big cities (where the cost of living raises the bar to upper class a bit,) but it's remarkably accurate for most places in the country.
100-200k for households puts you in the top 10%. Individuals, maybe top 5%. How is that not upper class!?
I wish I was even low middle according to your scale...
For reference:
Income in 1999
Households..................................105,539,122 100.0
Less than $10,000............................10,067,027 9.5
$10,000 to $14,999............................6,657,228 6.3
$15,000 to $24,999...........................13,536,965 12.8
$25,000 to $34,999...........................13,519,242 12.8
$35,000 to $49,999...........................17,446,272 16.5
$50,000 to $74,999...........................20,540,604 19.5
$75,000 to $99,999...........................10,799,245 10.2
$100,000 to $149,999..........................8,147,826 7.7
$150,000 to $199,999..........................2,322,038 2.2
$200,000 or more............................. 2,502,675 2.4
Median family income (dollars)..................50,046
Per capita income (dollars).....................21,587
Median earnings (dollars):
Male full-time, year-round workers..............37,057
Female full-time, year-round workers............27,194
Middle-middle probably kicks in when buying a nice new car every few years isn't a big deal, and your kids all have college funds started.
Upper-middle kicks in when buying a nice german car every few years is assumed, and you plan on paying your kids college tuition without much thought.
Pointing people who buy into this idea to >100k workers will get you excuses about college debt, sky-high rent in select US cities, or flat out denial (I cannot count the number of times that Reddit has told me that I do not exist... I should stop going there but reading what some people actually believe can be illuminating.) When they claim that 100k is actually not middle-class but instead the new lower class, then pointing out that it is more than twice the median income in the US will get you objections along the line of "middle class doesn't mean 'less poor than dirt poor'". When asked about people who make two or three times more than 100k, you'll typically get a response along the lines of "people who are self-employed cannot be middle-class, because middle-class is suppose to be something that regular factory workers can obtain."
The "middle class does not exist" idea is not well thought out, and is frequently self-contradictory, but I think there are a few things perpetuating the idea. One aspect is that many people do not want to admit that they are middle class because realizing that they have it pretty good would throw a wrench into their whole "class warfare" thing, which they want to hang onto for fashion reasons. Similarly, it is essential to them that other people are not middle class, and if they self-identify as such then they are necessarily deluding themselves.
I wonder if people are actually answering a different question: whether they personally feel middle class. Where you live will greatly affect this; there's a HUGE difference between $100K in SF vs Pittsburgh.
Average Salary:
San Francisco, CA: $79,000
Austin, TX: $55,000
Iowa City, IA: $54,000
Average House Price:
San Francisco, CA: $637,100
Austin, TX: $200,500
Iowa City, IA: $169,700
Also, I don't know if there is a better calculator out there now but I recall this one[1] being passed around back when it was a fairly new trend to hate on the 1%. Currently, $100K puts in at 81% on its scale... or "the top 19%" to use your scale. You would need to make $220K to be in the top 5%.
[1] http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/10/19/what-percent-are-y...
It's frustrating that the people making these calculators don't state how many working individuals makes up one household. One of the problems I'm seeing in these comments is that some of us are talking about individual income, and some household/family income.
Assuming that that number is accurate, I do not at all feel guilty about calling my tech salary "middle class" when adjusted for cost of living.
In fact, a lot of people (at least in my family) consider 'middle class' to mean 'can afford a house'. By that measure, I'm lower class. I can barely afford rent aroun dhere.