What Is the Working Class?
"Working class" is asocioeconomic term used to describe persons in a social class marked by jobs that provide low pay, require limited skill, or physical labor. Typically, working-class jobs have reduced education requirements. Unemployed persons or those supported by a social welfare program are often included in the working class.
Key Takeaways
- Working class is asocioeconomic term describing persons in a social class marked by jobs that provide low pay and require limited skill.
- Typically, working-class jobs have reduced education requirements.
- Today, most working-class jobs are found in the services sector and includeclerical, retail sales, and low-skillmanual laborvocations.
Understanding the Working Class
While "working class" is typically associated with manual labor and limited education, blue collar workers are vital to every economy. Economists in theUnited States generally define "working class" as adults without a college degree. Many members of the working class are also defined asmiddle-class.
Sociologistssuch as Dennis Gilbert and Joseph Kahl, who was a sociology professor at Cornell University and the author of the 1957 textbook The American Class Structure, identified theworking class as the most populous class in America.
Other sociologists such as William Thompson, Joseph Hickey and James Henslinsay the lower middle class is largest.In the class models devised by these sociologists, the working class comprises between 30% to35%of the population, roughlythe same number in the lower middle class. According toDennis Gilbert, the working class comprises those between the 25th and 55th percentile of society.
Karl Marx described the working class as the "proletariat", and that it was the working class who ultimately created the goods and provided the services that created a society's wealth. Marxists and socialists define theworking class asthose who have nothing to sell but their labor-power and skills. In that sense, the working classincludes both white and blue-collar workers, manual and menial workers of all types, excluding only individuals who derive their income from business ownership and the labor of others.
Types of Working Class Jobs
Working-class jobs today are quite different than the working-class jobs in the 1950s and 1960s. Americans working in factories and industrial jobs have been on the decline for many years. Today, most working-class jobs are found in the services sector and typically include:
- Clerical jobs
- Food industry positions
- Retail sales
- Low-skillmanual laborvocations
- Low-levelwhite-collar workers
Oftentimes working-class jobs pay less than $15 per hour, and some of those jobs do not include health benefits. In America, the demographics surrounding the working-class population is becoming more diverse. Approximately 59% of the working-class population is comprised of white Americans, down from 88% in the 1940s. African-Americans account for 14% while Hispanics currently represent 21% of the working class in the U.S.
History of the Working Class in Europe
InfeudalEurope, most were part of the laboring class; a group made up of different professions, trades, and occupations. A lawyer, craftsman, and peasant, for example,were all members–neither members of the aristocracy or religious elite. Similar hierarchies existed outside Europe in otherpre-industrial societies.
The social position of these laboring classes was viewed as ordained bynatural lawand common religious belief. Peasants challenged this perceptionduring theGerman Peasants' War.In the late 18th century, under the influence of theEnlightenment, a changing Europecould not be reconciled with the idea of a changeless god-created social order. Wealthy members ofsocieties at that time tried to keep the working class subdued, claimingmoraland ethical superiority.
