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As the cost of necessities continues to rise, a $60,000 salary falls well short of what’s needed to earn a comfortable living in many states. In 12 states, it won’t even qualify you for the middle class.
That’s according a new MoneyLion analysis of data from the U.S. Census, Sperling’s BestPlaces, Zillow and the Federal Reserve. MoneyLion used the Pew Research Center’s definition of middle class: an income of two-thirds to double the median income. READ MORE
To truly understand the context of a household’s income, it must be compared to local costs and long-term goals, which both may fluctuate over time. For most people, the same pillars will make up the biggest nonnegotiables in their budget. These include basic necessities like housing, groceries, utilities, and transportation, and likely some discretionary spending on hobbies, activities, and other enrichment. In an attempt to secure this lifestyle for the future, many households aim to save some of their income for emergencies, investments, retirement, education, and other long-term goals. A common budgeting technique that encapsulates these three pillars is called the 50/30/20 rule: 50% of your post-tax income goes to needs, 30% to your wants, and 20% gets set aside for the future. READ MORE
The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy is gathering signatures for the Overpaid CEO Tax Ordinance, a ballot initiative that would progressively tax large businesses whose CEOs make more than 50 times what their median worker makes, with higher taxes as the gap grows more extreme. It hopes to get the measure on the November ballot.
“Extreme income inequality is one of the most pressing issues impacting the health and welfare of Los Angeles residents,” the proposal reads, echoing protests by investors and social justice advocates nationally as details of the last 2025 pay packages for public company executives trickled in last week. READ MORE
America may very well be stuck in a K-shaped economy, with those at the top growing wealthier, while those at the bottom of the K find their spending power shrinking every year. It can make it feel hard to achieve the stereotypical middle-class lifestyle of modest homeownership, a decent job and some retirement savings.
A Pew Research study found about 51% of Americans were living in middle-class households in 2023, down from 61% in 1971. READ MORE
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
Sandy P. had been a project manager in tech for six years. She had a new offer on the table, a number that felt low for everything she brought to the role and no idea how to push back without seeming difficult. So she asked ChatGPT for help.
Here's how it went. READ MORE
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
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’ 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
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
For years, I’ve seen organizations treat compensation as a downstream decision, something you fine‑tune after strategy is set, budgets are approved, and hiring plans are locked. But in today’s talent environment, that approach is no longer neutral. It’s actively risky. READ MORE
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
Tesla Inc. tallied up Elon Musk’s annual compensation for the first time since shareholders approved his moonshot pay package, and it’s a doozy: $158 billion. READ MORE
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