They typically own a car, perhaps two, but their cars are the more moderately priced makes and models and they get significant mileage on them before they are replaced. Such jobs do not carry much prestige, nor do they require extensive education. Most members of the working class have graduated from high school or a trade school. In the working class living expenses are always about the same as income. There is little money for discretionary spending.
Savings are rare.
This, in turn, makes the working class vulnerable to economic downturns, and a financial crisis, such as a layoff or a major illness, can easily propel them downward in social class, to the poor. The poverty line is a sum of money against which an individual s or family s income is compared to determine whether they are poor. Family of four living on 16,000.00 or less is considered poor. Millions more, the so called working poor are just barely better off. About half of the heads of officially poor households do not work at all, in many cases because they are women with children who cannot secure affordable child care Many people, though, are working full time or part time, but hold jobs that pay minimum wage rates, which are not enough to lift you and your family out of poverty.