“There is an aura of redistribution of income from middle income to upper income.”<br />The study acknowledges that “middle class” can connote more than just income — like a college education, white-collar work, economic security, homeownership or even self-image —<br />but for the purposes of the study, it was defined by income.<br />Households that earned from two-thirds to double the national median income were defined as middle income in the Pew study; in the United States<br />that translated into annual income of $35,294 to $105,881, after taxes, in 2010.<br />“Financially, the U. S. remains well ahead of the countries in Europe,” Mr. Kochhar said.<br />The United States, including the middle class, has a higher median income than nearly all of Europe, even if the Continent is catching up.<br />For people with kids, I can only imagine how tough they got it.”<br />A version of this article appears in print on April 25, 2017, on Page B2 of the New<br />York edition with the headline: U. S. Middle Class Shrank in 20 Years, Study Finds.<br />Whether in Europe or the United States, technological change and globalization mean<br />that people who can adapt and learn new skills can reap bigger rewards, Mr. Kochhar said.<br />“Compared with the Western European experience, the adult population in the U. S. is more<br />economically divided,” said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research at Pew.
