15 States Where a Middle-Class Salary Actually Feels Middle Class

In some parts of the country, a middle-class income barely covers the basics. Between rent, expensive groceries, and a cost of living that seems to climb every year, plenty of people with solid paychecks still feel like they’re falling behind. But in other states, that same salary can go a whole lot further.

The difference usually comes down to housing costs, taxes, and everyday expenses like gas and groceries. In these states, a middle-class income doesn’t just cover the bills; it actually leaves room for savings, vacations, and a comfortable life. Here are 15 states where a middle-class salary still feels like what it’s supposed to feel like. READ MORE

His Employer Changed Him From Salary to Hourly—So He Refused to Answer Work Calls After Clocking Out

Imagine being paid salary, and you’re also expected to be on call. That means you end up dealing with multiple phone calls every single night.

Then, imagine being paid hourly. Would you still be open to being on call? READ MORE

U.S. firms plan to increase employee base salary budgets by an average 3.3% in 2027

Despite the current economic turbulence, most employees in a majority of companies will be getting a base salary increase for 2027, according to a large survey by organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry.

Almost half (47%) of the 5,512 participating employers said they expect to provide salary hikes to at least 95% of their employees, while 79% expect to do so for at least 80% of employees. Only 2% said they are planning no increases for anyone. READ MORE

How much US presidents have been paid since George Washington

How much do you get paid to be the leader of the free world?

Since 2001, the president of the United States has been paid $400,000 a year. Compare that to 1789, when the US elected its first president, and the presidential salary was $25,000 a year. READ MORE

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation Hit $49.46 an Hour

Employers paid an average of $49.46 for every hour a civilian worker put in during June 2026, according to new figures the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday. Wages made up $33.85 of that total. Benefits accounted for the remaining $15.61.

The number sounds abstract until it’s split apart. It’s the clearest signal yet of where compensation is heading in the second half of 2026, and it comes loaded with detail that matters differently depending on whether an employer sits in Alabama or Massachusetts — or in Sofia rather than Luxembourg City. READ MORE

Meta loses its $1.5 billion AI recruit less than a year after hiring him

Andrew Tulloch initially turned down Meta’s reported compensation package before joining the company several months later. He has now resigned as Meta races to catch up with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. READ MORE

Lowe's CEO says skilled trades can offer six-figure careers without 4-year degree

As employers across the country look for skilled workers, the Lowe's Foundation is backing a new effort aimed at creating more pathways into high-paying skilled trades careers that do not require a traditional four-year college degree. READ MORE

Shareholder opposition to executive pay eases globally

Shareholder rebellions over executive pay eased across many of the world’s biggest stock markets this year, with opposition falling in Europe, the United States and Japan despite a handful of high-profile revolts.

The move comes as pay and perks continue to dwarf the average worker’s wage, with average CEO pay at S&P 500 companies hitting a record high even excluding a bumper pay plan for Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of SpaceX. READ MORE

15 States Where Your Salary Goes Much Further

A bigger salary doesn’t always mean a better financial life. Where you live can have an enormous impact on what your paycheck actually buys once housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, healthcare, and taxes enter the equation.

According to MERIC’s first-quarter 2026 Cost of Living Index, many of America’s least expensive states are concentrated in the South and Midwest. A score below 100 indicates costs below the national benchmark, and housing is often where the biggest savings appear. READ MORE

See How Earnings Progress and When Pay Peaks as You Advance in Your Career

Once you’ve settled into a job, it’s easy to fall into the rhythm of meetings, deadlines, and regular paychecks.

You may not think much about how your income compares to others. But seeing how your salary stacks up by age—and how earnings rise and fall over time, including which group earns the most—can give you a better sense of your financial trajectory. READ MORE

What's the salary? These employers aren’t saying, despite warnings from New York regulators

Three years since New York began requiring employers to post pay ranges in their job listings, some companies are still flouting the law — even after receiving warnings from state regulators, according to public records obtained by Business Insider.

Prediction marketplace Polymarket, accounting software provider Rillet, advertising firm Icon, and digital-doorman company ButterflyMX are among the employers that continued to post New York jobs without compensation ranges after receiving at least two warnings from the state labor department, Business Insider found. Recent roles posted by these companies without pay information have included a regulatory attorney, a recruiting coordinator, and a founding creative. READ MORE

Modest pay hikes next year could leave some workers lagging inflation

Employers are likely to offer their workers only modest pay hikes in 2027, according to a new estimate.

Salary increases next year are forecast to average 3.5%, including merit raises, cost-of-living adjustments, promotions and other pay increases, Marsh, a professional services firm, found in a survey of 1,000 U.S. organizations. READ MORE

Shareholder opposition to executive pay eases globally

Shareholder rebellions over executive pay eased across many of the world’s biggest stock markets this year, with opposition falling in Europe, the United States and Japan despite a handful of high-profile revolts.

The move comes as pay and perks continue to dwarf the average worker’s wage, with average CEO pay at S&P 500 companies hitting a record high even excluding a bumper pay plan for Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of SpaceX. READ MORE

U.S. CEO pay rides markets higher: ISS

Amid strong equity markets, CEO pay soared to record heights, driven by large one-time awards, according to new research from advisory firm, ISS-Corporate. Shareholders had few objections to the largesse.

Median CEO pay for the companies in the S&P 500 index reached $17.5 million (all figures in U.S. dollars) for fiscal 2025, reflecting a 20% cumulative increase in median pay since 2021, the report on executive compensation trends from the latest proxy season indicated. READ MORE

Company refuses to give a temp employee a raise, despite promoting him to a role that requires the workload of a full-time employee

You should feel lucky if you've never had to do temp work. Those jobs are not for the faint of heart. You never feel like you're quite secure in your position, and that's because you're not. You can get fired anytime for literally any reason. You don't have the same protections and benefits as full-time employees.  READ MORE

Average salary by age: How does your paycheck compare?

The average salary in the U.S. is between $64,500 and $69,800, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But those figures vary widely based on age, with young people earlier in their career earning less before peaking in their 40s and then dropping again as they near retirement.

That’s what a recent analysis by Investopedia found. The analysis looked at the median salary of different age groups. READ MORE

SEC Proposes Overhaul of Executive Pay Disclosure Rules

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is advancing an initiative to modernize how publicly traded firms report their leadership compensation packages. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has characterized the existing framework, unchanged since 1992, as a "Frankenstein patchwork of rules."

Public companies presently must file detailed reports about remuneration provided to their five highest-compensated officers, specifically naming the CEO, CFO, and three additional top earners. These filings must include methodology explanations and performance-based compensation breakdowns. READ MORE

AI Isn’t Coming for Our Jobs. It’s Coming for Our Wages.

The Economist recently ran a cover entitled “Prepare for an AI jobs apocalypse,” citing widespread fear among the American public of artificial-intelligence-induced job losses. Such fearmongering is far from new. Information technology breakthroughs have led to many such announcements over the last few decades.

In the 1990s, we had the computer scare, prompted by best-selling authors such as Jeremy Rifkin and Viviane Forrester. More recently, in 2013, we had the robot menace, when an Oxford study estimated that 47 percent of jobs in the United States were at risk of computerization. At both times, such prophecies coincided with mass unemployment, not caused by technology but by economic recessions driven by financial instability and austerity policies. Yet such stories helped to naturalize and depoliticize unemployment. READ MORE

The 1 Big Compensation Decision Founders Should Never Hand to AI

AI has quickly made itself useful across hiring. It can sift through résumés, draft a job description in seconds, and match a role to market benchmarks. For a small company that never had a compensation team, that’s a genuine unlock.

But things get thornier when AI has a say in what the actual salaries that companies pay their employees should be. And that’s the bigger question that founders now have to grapple with—whether they should let AI set the number itself. That pressure is only growing, and this year it found a sharp edge in the law. READ MORE

College degrees becoming less valuable as salary premiums plummet, unemployment climbs

Break out the caps — and frowns.

Benefits of higher education appear to be waning as salary premiums shrank and unemployment among young graduates climbed in recent years, according to shocking new figures.

Recent American college grads earned 50% more than contemporaries who only held high school diplomas in 2025, according to numbers from the Federal Reserve recently compiled by the Economist. READ MORE