Then buy a nice with with a decent commute, enough room for 2 kids with good public education, a car, and a lawn on that one 100k income... And any health issues that happen to strike you. Because thats what the american middle class was sold on.

What is it then? It seems at best upper middle class in the US [not California], but that's pushing it.

Did you mean this as in, 100k is not quite middle class, or 100k is over your bar for middle class? Here in Seattle, I make around that with 1 yr exp and certainly don't feel secure or comfortable with it.

You don't feel secure because you're spending a large percentage of it. If your life choices were such that you were banking 2k/mo of your salary, you would probably feel quite secure. That would certainly involve other sacrifices, and I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong. Just that it's a choice. Comfort vs convenience vs security vs whatever other factor.

It's probably safe to assume that the largest reason the parent doesn't feel financially secure is because of the cost of housing.

So, sure, the parent could make a different choice, and move to a lower cost of living area, but then they'd be making significantly less, and might still not feel particularly financially secure.

Even now, with many companies realizing that remote work is ok, and planning to allow some form of it permanently, many also plan to change (lower) people's salaries based on where they end up deciding to live, even if they do the exact same work.

You're right. In San Francisco that would not be anywhere near sufficient to maintain a middle class lifestyle.

Middle class in the Bay Area starts around $150-200k per year.

Depends on the area you're living at, and unfortunately it seems like HCOL city issue has shifted from an SF/NY/London thing to a nation-wide issue.

> [someone] who makes $100k [] is not a middle class wage.

Where?

Why did you cut out the starting salary part?

I know averages aren't the same as class, but, middle-class would be about half that, if middle-class=average salary, in the USA.

https://www.google.com/search?q=average+starting+salary+in+u...

> While there are a few outliers, the general average salary for college graduates comes to about $50,000

Class is defined based on lifestyle, not statistics. The average income in the US is nowhere near enough to sustain a middle class lifestyle.

Yes, this is exactly why I cut out the “starting” piece.

So then if it isn't middle class then which class do you think it is?

The whole of USA the median household wage is 65k. If you can earn 100k in your first year you're upper middle at minimum.

"The whole of the USA" isn't a good metric to use since wages vary a lot between areas. What matters to your "middle class-ness" is the median wage in your particular area. And it's quite a bit higher than $65k in some areas.

Consider that the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development considers residents of San Francisco to be "low income" if they make under $82,200 as an individual or $117,400 as a family of four as of 2018[0]. Those numbers are 80% of median income, which means in SF for an individual the median income was about $103k. You said, "if you can earn 100k in your first year you're upper middle at minimum", but, alas, no: if you made $100k in 2018 in San Francisco, you were barely even middle-middle class.

Also consider that making the median wage in your area may still not allow you financial security. We're defining "middle class" here in relation to median wage, which may not be a universal definition. I would expect it has more to do with the median resident's purchasing power.

[0] https://sfgov.org/scorecards/safety-net/poverty-san-francisc...

A new grad making $100k/year doesn’t seem realistic for the area this CEO or his peers are in.

Absolutely its a middle class wage what do you think IB or lawyers get ?