The Working Class: What Is It?
“Working class” is a socioeconomic term that describes persons in a social class marked by jobs that provide low pay, require limited skill, or physical labor. Typically, working-class jobs have reduced education requirements. The working class often includes unemployed persons or those supported by a social welfare program.
Knowledge of the Working Class
Although the term “working class” is usually linked to hard labor and a low level of education, blue-collar workers are essential to all economies. Adults without a college degree are often classified as “working class” by American economists. Many people who identify as working class are likewise considered middle class.
According to sociologists like Dennis Gilbert and Joseph Kahl, a Cornell University sociology professor and the author of the 1957 classic The American Class Structure, the working class is the largest in America.
According to some sociologists like James Henslin, Joseph Hickey, and William Thompson, the lower middle class is the biggest. According to these sociologists’ class theories, the working class makes up between 30% and 35% of the population, or almost the same as the lower middle class. According to Dennis Gilbert, people in the 25th to 55th percentiles of society are considered part of the working class.
Karl Marx referred to the working class as the “proletariat” because they are the ones who produce the goods and render the services, which is how a society ultimately generates wealth. Marxists and socialists define the working class as individuals with only labor and talents to sell. Thus, the working class includes manual and menial laborers of all stripes and white-collar and blue-collar workers; the only people excluded are those who make their living by owning businesses and employing others.
Jobs for the Working Class: Types
Compared to the 1950s and 1960s, working-class occupations are now different. There has been a long-term fall in the number of Americans employed in factories and other industrial occupations. The majority of working-class employment nowadays is in the services industry and usually includes the following:
- Jobs in Clerical
- Jobs in the food sector
- shopping sales
- manual labor jobs requiring little expertise
- entry-level white-collar employees
Working-class positions often have less than $15 hourly wages, and some don’t even provide health coverage. In America, the working-class population’s surrounding demographics are diversifying. White Americans comprise around 59% of the working class, a decrease from 88% in the 1940s. In the United States, Hispanics today make up 21% of the working class, while African-Americans make up 14%.2. The European Working Class’s History.
The majority in feudal Europe belonged to the working class, composed of people from various crafts, professions, and vocations. For example, a farmer, a lawyer, and an artisan were all members, not part of the religious or aristocratic elite. Outside of Europe, similar hierarchies were present in various pre-industrial communities.
It was believed that natural law and popular religious belief had predetermined the social status of these working classes. Peasants refuted this view during the German Peasants’ War. The concept of a stable social order established by God was incompatible with the evolving European society of the late 18th century when the Enlightenment took hold. Those who were wealthy in such civilizations attempted to maintain the working class’s subjugation by asserting their moral and ethical superiority.
Conclusion
- The socioeconomic phrase “working class” refers to people in a social class characterized by low-paying and skill-required employment.
- Working-class occupations often have lower educational requirements.
- Most working-class employment nowadays is in the services industry, including low-skill physical labor, retail sales, and secretarial positions.
