Earning a household income of $150,000 might sound like a lot, but in many of the biggest cities in the U.S. it still puts you squarely in the middle class.
Middle-class households earn between two-thirds and twice the local median income, according to Pew Research Center’s definition. Nationally, the middle class spans incomes from $51,813 to $155,438.
By the same measure, San Jose, California, has the highest middle-class income range of the largest U.S. cities. The city’s median household income is $136,229 — nearly double the national median of $77,719. That means middle-class residents in San Jose earn between $90,819 and $272,458 per year.
Large cities like San Jose and New York are economic hubs with a high concentration of high-paying jobs in sectors such as tech, finance and professional services, which is part of why median incomes tend to be higher in these places. But higher earnings are often offset by steep living costs — especially for housing.
And while earning $100,000 has long been seen as a milestone, in a city like San Jose it puts a household at the lower end of the local middle-class range. For residents, that might help explain why earning six figures doesn’t feel like it stretches as far as it once did.
Here’s how much you’d need to earn to be considered middle class in each of the 15 largest U.S. cities, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data, which adjusts all income to 2023 dollars, ranked from the highest to lowest median income.
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