In order to understand family life in the United States, it can be helpful to identify the various levels of socioeconomic status, which include a person’s or family’s education level, income, career, and overall social status. The first chapter of this text identified some of the differences that individuals and families experience based on gender, sex, sexuality, race, immigration status, and ethnicity. Here we will focus on what the definitions and meanings are of socioeconomic status.

Geologists also use the word “stratification” to describe the distinct vertical layers found in rock (figure 2.13). Social stratification, or society’s layers, made of people, represent the uneven distribution of society’s resources. Society views the people with more resources as the top layer of the social structure of stratification. Other groups of people, with fewer and fewer resources, represent the lower layers. An individual’s place within this stratification is called socioeconomic status.

Most people and institutions in the United States indicate that they value equality, a belief that everyone has an equal chance at success. In other words, hard work and talent—not inherited wealth, prejudicial treatment, institutional racism, or societal values—determine social mobility, an individual’s or family’s movement through the class hierarchy due to changes in income, occupation, or wealth. This emphasis on choice, motivation, and self-effort perpetuates the American belief that people control their own social standing.

However, it is easy to see inequalities in social class. While inequalities exist between individuals, it’s also important to be aware of larger social patterns. Sociologists look to see if individuals with similar backgrounds, group memberships, identities, and location in the country share the same social stratification. No individual, rich or poor, can be blamed for social inequalities, but all of us participate in a system where some rise and others fall. Most Americans believe the rising and falling is based on individual choices. But we will see how the structure of society affects a person’s social standing and therefore is created and supported by society.

One key determinant of social standing is our parents. Parents tend to pass their social position on to their children. People inherit not only social standing but also the cultural norms, values, and beliefs that accompany a certain lifestyle. They share these with a network of friends and family members that provide resources and support. This is one of the reasons first-generation college students may not fare as well as other students (and that many colleges and universities currently focus on supporting these students). They lack access to the resources and support commonly provided to those whose parents have gone to college.

Other determinants are found in a society’s occupational structure. Teachers, for example, often have high levels of education but receive lower pay than other professions with high levels of education. Many believe that teaching is a noble profession, so teachers should do their jobs for love of their profession and the good of their students—not for money. Yet the same attitude is not applied to professional athletes, executives, or those working in corporate world. Cultural attitudes and beliefs like these support and perpetuate social and economic inequalities.

Social Classes in the United States

Categorizing social class is a fluid science. Sociologists generally identify three levels of class in the United States: upper, middle, and lower class. Within each class, there are many subcategories. Social class is closely related to socioeconomic status but focuses on wealth. Wealth is the most significant way of distinguishing classes, because wealth can be transferred to one’s children and perpetuate the class structure.

The Pew Research Center defines classes based on the median household income. The lower class includes those whose income is two-thirds of the national median, the middle class includes those whose income falls between two-thirds and twice the median, and the upper class includes those whose income is above twice the national median (Kochhar, 2015).

A sociological perspective distinguishes the classes, in part, according to their relative power and control over their lives. Members of the upper class have power and control over their own lives, but their social status also gives them power and control over others’ lives. The middle class doesn’t generally control other strata of society, but its members do exert control over their own lives. In contrast, the lower class has little control over their work or lives. Let’s look at the major divisions of U.S. social class and their key subcategories.

The upper class is considered the top, and only the powerful elite get to see the view from there. In the United States, people with extreme wealth make up 1% of the population, and they own roughly one-third of the country’s wealth (Beeghley, 2008). As corporate leaders, members of the upper class make decisions that affect the job status of millions of people. As media owners, they influence the collective identity of the nation. As board members of the most influential colleges and universities, they influence cultural attitudes and values. As philanthropists, they establish foundations to support social causes they believe in. As campaign contributors and legislation drivers, they fund political campaigns, sometimes to protect their own economic interests.

Many people consider themselves middle class, but there are differing ideas about what that means. People with annual incomes of $150,000 call themselves middle class, as do people who annually earn $30,000. That helps explain why, in the United States, the middle class is broken into upper and lower subcategories. Lower-middle-class members tend to complete a two-year associate’s degrees or a four-year bachelor’s degree. They fill technical, lower-level management or administrative support positions. They generally don’t have enough income to build significant savings. They can afford a decent, mainstream lifestyle, but they may struggle to maintain it.

Upper-middle-class people tend to continue on to postgraduate degrees. They study subjects such as business, management, law, or medicine. They work hard and live fairly comfortable lives. Upper-middle-class people tend to pursue careers, own their homes, and travel on vacation. Their children receive high-quality education and health care (Gilbert, 2010). Families within the middle class may have access to some wealth, but they also must work for an income to maintain this lifestyle.

People who have lower incomes are also referred to as the working class. Just like the middle and upper classes, the people in the lower class can be divided into subsets: the working class, the working poor, and the underclass. People from the lower economic class have less formal education and earn smaller incomes. They work jobs that require less training or experience than middle-class occupations and often do routine tasks under close supervision.

Working-class people, the highest subcategory of the lower class, often land steady jobs that are hands-on and can be physically demanding, such as landscaping, cooking, cleaning, or building. The working poor have unskilled, low-paying employment. These jobs rarely offer benefits such as health care or retirement planning, and their positions are often seasonal or temporary. They work as migrant farm workers, housecleaners, and day laborers.

How can people work full time and still be poor? Even working full time, millions of the working poor earn incomes too meager to support a family. The government requires employers to pay a minimum wage that varies from state to state, yet still leaves individuals and families below the poverty line. The real value of the federal minimum wage has dropped 17% since 2009 and 31% since 1968 (Cooper, Gould, & Zipperer, 2019).

The poorest of the poor, sometimes called the underclass, is the United States’ lowest tier. The term itself and its classification of people have been questioned, and some prominent sociologists believe its use is either overgeneralizing or incorrect (Gans, 1991). But many experts recognize the growth of the underclass who live mainly in inner cities. They typically perform menial tasks for little pay. Some of the people in this group are houseless. Many rely on welfare systems to provide food, medical care, and housing assistance, which still does not cover all their basic needs.

Social Mobility

People are often inspired and amazed at people’s ability to overcome extremely difficult upbringings. Alice Coachman grew up with few resources and was denied access to training facilities because of her race; she ran barefoot and built her own high jump equipment before becoming the first Black athlete (and one of the first American track and field athletes) to win an Olympic gold medal. This is the kind of story told in documentaries or biographies meant to inspire, but relative to the overall population, the number of people who rise from poverty to become very successful is small, and the number that become wealthy is even smaller. Systemic barriers like unequal education, discrimination, and lack of opportunity can slow or diminish one’s ability to move up in society.

Social mobility refers to the ability of individuals to change positions within a social stratification system. When people improve or diminish their economic status in a way that affects social class, they experience social mobility. Upward mobility refers to an increase—or upward shift—when they move from a lower to a higher socioeconomical class. In contrast, individuals experience downward mobility when they move from higher socioeconomic class to a lower one. Some people move downward because of business setbacks, divorce, unemployment, or illness.

Structural mobility happens when societal changes enable a whole group of people to move up or down the social class ladder. In the first half of the 20th century, industrialization expanded the U.S. economy, raising the standard of living and leading to upward structural mobility for almost everyone. In the first few decades of the 21st century, recessions and the outsourcing of jobs overseas have contributed to the withdrawal of Americans from the workforce (BLS, 2021). Many people experienced economic setbacks, creating a wave of downward structural mobility.

Changing Economics Effects on Families

In the last century, the United States saw a steady rise in its standard of living, the level of wealth available to acquire the material necessities and comforts to maintain a specific lifestyle. The country’s standard of living is based on factors such as income, employment, class, literacy rates, mortality rates, poverty rates, and housing affordability. A country with a high standard of living has a high quality of life, which in the United States means residents can afford a home, own a car, build savings, and take vacations. Ultimately, standard of living is shaped by the wealth and distribution of wealth in a country and the expectations its citizens have for their lifestyle.

In the United States, a small portion of the population has access to the highest standard of living:

• The wealthiest 1% of the U.S. population holds one-third of the nation’s wealth;
• The top 50% to 90% hold almost two-thirds of the nation’s wealth;
• The bottom 50% hold only 2% of the nation’s wealth (The Federal Reserve, 2021).

Although the middle class is still significantly larger than the lower and upper classes, it shrank from 69% in 1971 to 51% in 2020. Arguably the most significant threat to the United States’ relatively high standard of living is this decline of the middle class. The wealth of the middle class has also been declining; its share of the nation’s wealth fell from 32% in 1983 to 16% in 2016 (Horowitz, Igielnik, & Kochhar, 2020).

People with wealth often receive the most and best schooling, access better health care, and consume the most goods and services. In addition, wealthy people also wield decision-making power over their daily life because money gives them access to better resources. Many lower-income individuals receive less education, have inadequate health care, and have less influence over the circumstances of their everyday lives.

Additionally, tens of millions of women and men struggle to pay rent, buy food, find work, and afford basic medical care. Poverty is an economic condition in which a family or individuals have an income of 50% less than the average median income. This income is sometimes called the poverty level or the poverty line. In 2021, for example, the poverty line was set at $12,880 for one individual, $17,420 for a couple, and $26,500 for a family of four (ASPE, 2021).

Women who are single heads of household tend to have a lower income and lower standard of living than their married or single male counterparts. This is a worldwide phenomenon known as the feminization of poverty—which acknowledges that women disproportionately make up the majority of individuals in poverty across the globe and have a lower standard of living. In the United States, women make up approximately 56% of Americans living in poverty. One in four unmarried mothers lives in poverty (Bleiweis, 2020).

As a wealthy developed country, the United States invests in resources to provide the basic necessities to those in need through a series of federal and state social welfare programs. These programs provide food, medical, and cash assistance. One of the best-known programs is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and formerly known as the Food Stamp Program. This program began in the Great Depression, when unmarketable or surplus food was distributed to the hungry. It was not formalized until 1961, when a pilot food stamp program began and became formalized by the passage of the federal Food Stamp Act in 1964. In 1965, more than 500,000 individuals received food assistance. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, participation reached 43 million people.

These resources are important for survival, but they do not provide enough assistance to help people achieve social mobility.

To think more about how poverty intersects with other social characteristics complete the activity “Social Location Impacts Families” in the “Going Deeper” section.

Comprehension Self Check

Licenses and Attributions for Social Stratification in Families

Open Content, Original

Figure 12.3. “Candy Cliffs Rock Strata” by Elizabeth B. Pearce. License: CC BY 4.0.

Open Content, Shared Previously

“Social Stratification in Families” is from “What is Social Stratification?” in Introduction to Sociology 3e by Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, and Asha Lal Tamang. License: CC BY 4.0. Adaptations: edited for brevity, reading level, and relevance.

“Social Classes in the United States” is from “Social Stratification and Mobility in the United States” in Introduction to Sociology 3e by Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, and Asha Lal Tamang. License: CC BY 4.0. Adaptations: edited for brevity, reading level, and relevance.

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