ChatGPT shares the salary you need to be upper-middle class in each state

Upper-middle class means different things depending on where you live. I asked ChatGPT what household income qualifies in each state and the range is huge.

The Calculation Method

Analysts use census income data and Pew Research Center methodology to figure this out, calculating the middle-class range as the middle two-thirds of household incomes in a state, then identifying the upper third of that range as upper-middle class. This roughly covers households at the 67th to 100th percentile of middle incomes. READ MORE

Virginia Law Will Require Pay Transparency, Restrict Employers from Seeking Wage History

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger has signed into law SB215 and HB636, identical bills that require covered employers to disclose the wage or salary range for public and internal job postings. The law also prohibits employers from seeking the wage or salary history of a prospective employee. The law will go into effect on July 1, 2026. READ MORE

14 Tips For Handling Salary Negotiations Without Damaging Trust

Salary negotiations can quickly strain relationships when they feel opaque, inconsistent or disconnected from internal equity. For human resources (HR) leaders, the challenge is balancing competitive offers with fairness to current employees while maintaining trust on both sides of the table.

To help leaders navigate these high-stakes conversations, Forbes Human Resources Council members share their tips for handling salary negotiations with a clear strategy in place. With their expertise, your organization can protect its employee relationships while still making competitive, sustainable decisions. READ MORE

Spirit Airlines Wind-Down Plan Calls for Millions in Bonus Pay

Spirit Airlines’ pivot from reorganizing to winding down in bankruptcy is going to require millions of dollars in retention payments to non-management employees and a revised bonus plan for three senior executives.

The budget airline, which shut down over the weekend following failed talks for a federal government rescue, on Monday rolled out a contingency plan to maintain a skeleton crew of “key officers and employees” to liquidate its aircraft and other assets on an expedited basis. READ MORE

Workers want $33K more. Employers can’t match it

Navigating heightened employee expectations of salary is certainly not a new HR challenge—but it could be one that is growing increasingly thorny and consequential.

A recent study finds that, amid employees and employers both facing rising costs, the gap between what the workforce expects in terms of salary and what organizations can realistically pay is wide. The report from JobLeads analyzed more than 800,000 job postings and salary expectation data from 245,000 candidates, finding that, globally, candidates expect $10,411 more than employers pay. The U.S. has the biggest gap of all countries studied: $33,332. READ MORE

The Salary Needed for Gen Z, Millennials and Boomers To Be Upper Class in 2026

Imagine you’re living that life when you can look around and see a big house, fat savings account and even the absence of panic when you make a splurge or two. Historically, this is what middle class looks like in America. These days? It feels like the benchmark for upper class.

However, in 2026, the definition of the upper class might look a little different, especially when filtered through the lens of different generations. Wildly different housing markets, debt levels and cost‑of‑living pressures don’t help either. READ MORE

The Salary Gap: Why HR professionals demand $40K more than current pay

The recruitment industry has always faced a massive disconnect. While companies aim to keep overhead low, recent data suggests things are grim when it comes to salary satisfaction. HR professionals expect much more than what roles actually pay. Specifically, this salary gap has widened to over $40,000. If you think about it, this shift represents a fundamental error in how we view talent and its value.

The people responsible for hiring are now feeling the same inflationary pressures and burnout.  READ MORE

Average Lawyer Salary 2026: BLS Data by State, Practice Area & Experience

If you are a lawyer reviewing your options in 2026, the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and major legal compensation surveys makes one thing clear: location, specialty, and experience still dictate everything.

The national median lawyer salary stands at $151,160 as of the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey for May 2024 — the most recent official release — with approximately 747,750 lawyers in paid employment across the country. The national mean wage for lawyers is $182,760, reflecting how strongly the top earners pull the average upward. READ MORE

Firms fighting S.F. CEO tax have huge pay gaps, analysis shows

The “Overpaid CEO Act” targets San Francisco companies with the biggest pay disparities between workers and the C-suite, and the firms shelling out to tank it are among those with the widest gaps, a new analysis shows.

The analysis published Tuesday by the Institute for Policy Studies, a nonprofit focused on progressive issues, shows that in 2025, at least seven of the companies that are paying out to defeat the measure had pay gaps between their median worker and CEOs above the 100-to-1 ratio threshold the proposed law targets. READ MORE

Companies Disclose Executive Pay Impacts of Trump Tariffs

Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration in 2025 introduced a new layer of uncertainty for U.S. companies already navigating a fragile macroeconomic environment. The measures apply to imports from most global trading partners across a wide range of tariff rates, shifting constantly in response to negotiations, policy changes and foreign retaliation. During the 2026 proxy season, this uncertainty influenced how companies evaluated executive compensation programs, with many organizations addressing tariff-related impacts in their proxy statements, particularly when determining performance goals and pay outcomes. READ MORE

CEOs got millions after boards ‘neutralized’ the impact of tariffs. Some won’t say what it was worth

Christopher Calio, CEO of RTX, collected $27.7 million in compensation last year. That was his total after the $241.5 billion aerospace and defense giant’s board decided the trade war wouldn’t touch his bonus. 

At its January 2025 board meeting, the compensation committee of RTX, formerly Raytheon, pre-authorized the removal of tariff impacts on business metrics related to Calio’s pay months before President Trump announced a set of sweeping Liberation Day tariffs on April 2, 2025 that upended global supply chains. The RTX comp committee said that the tariff-cost impact “should be neutralized” for determining annual bonus payouts because the tariffs were “externally imposed, unpredictable and unrelated to operational execution.” READ MORE

The Affordability Issue – An Employer View

Among the slew of data released last week was a Bureau of Labor Statistics update on the employment cost index. The data showed that for all civilian workers overall compensation costs rose 3.4 percent between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. Similarly, wages and salaries rose at the same 3.4-percent rate, but benefit costs rose at a faster 3.6-percent pace. READ MORE

EU Pay Transparency Directive: The countdown is on

One of the most critical pieces of legislation related to equity in the workplace in decades is about to go into effect—and companies worldwide need to take note, experts say.

EU-operating organizations have until June 7 to comply with the provisions of the EU Pay Transparency Directive, a comprehensive approach to narrowing the pay gap between men and women in EU-operating organizations, which was adopted about three years ago. Organizations in EU member states will soon need to ensure they can demonstrate that they provide equal pay for equal work, and give applicants easy access to pay information or pay ranges and pay progression criteria, while complying with regular reporting requirements. READ MORE

Using global shocks as a laboratory to study executive pay

It is often claimed that executives reap rewards from favourable market tailwinds they did nothing to create. This column uses two decades of Danish data to argue that this ‘pay for luck’ critique requires more nuance. While CEOs do receive higher pay when global conditions are favourable, the authors find that boards reward the effort required to capitalise on those favourable conditions as well as to mitigate losses in the face of negative shocks. The findings suggest that globalisation doesn't just increase pay – it fundamentally changes why and how CEOs are compensated. READ MORE

The Corporate and Billionaire Opponents of San Francisco’s Overpaid Executive Tax

San Francisco voters will soon have a chance to weigh in on a proposed increase to the city’s Overpaid Executive Tax. This proposal would give large corporations with huge gaps between CEO and worker pay a choice between narrowing those gaps to reasonable levels or contributing a bit more to local public services at a time of severe budget shortfalls. Deep-pocketed donors are building a huge war chest to block the initiative. READ MORE

Tech’s Role in Strategic Compensation

Managing payroll is more complex than ever before. With constantly changing pay transparency laws and offices expanding around the globe, HR needs to ensure they are maintaining compliance and consistency in their practices. Today’s tech platforms are helping to ease this burden being felt by HR and comp teams.

“Technology is now central to modernizing compensation practices,” says Jack Jones, senior principal, compensation and total rewards for Mercer. “Not an add-on, but the backbone that enables faster, fairer, and more strategic paid decisions. It automates work routine, enables more sophisticated analysis, supports transparent communication, and helps ensure consistency and compliance.” READ MORE

Amazon analyst feels 'trapped' after tripled salary

A post by a 26‑year‑old Amazon analyst on professional networking platform Grapevine has triggered a wide discussion around career growth, burnout, and the invisible pressures that come with higher pay, after the employee said tripling their salary had made life feel “worse”, not better.

In the post, the analyst wrote that despite earning more than anticipated and switching jobs to accelerate growth, the demands of work and family responsibilities had left him feeling “completely trapped”. READ MORE