{"id":278365,"date":"2026-05-20T17:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/278365\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T17:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:53:09","slug":"are-you-middle-class-what-you-need-to-make-it-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/278365\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you middle class? What you need to make it in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you consider yourself to be\u00a0middle class?<\/a><\/p>\n

The definition of America’s middle class is not entirely clear; however, the\u00a0Pew Research Center<\/a>\u00a0defines it as those with household incomes between two-thirds and double the national median income.<\/p>\n

A SmartAsset study<\/a>\u00a0used 2024 U.S. Census data and Pew Research Center studies to define what a middle-class household income looks like in each state. Here is what a middle-class income in Florida looks like.<\/p>\n

Are you in the middle class in Florida? <\/p>\n

According to SmartAsset, the median middle-class household income in Florida is $77,735, ranking 26th among the 50 states.<\/p>\n

To be considered middle class in Florida, you would need a household income of at least $51,823. Anything above a household income of $155,470 is considered upper class.<\/p>\n

In comparison, the state with the highest median middle-class household income is Massachusetts, at $104,828. On the other end of the spectrum is Mississippi, where the median middle-class household income is $59,127.<\/p>\n

Which Florida city has the highest middle-class income? <\/p>\n

SmartAssets’ study even breaks down median middle-class incomes by certain cities, revealing which city has the highest middle-class income.<\/p>\n

According to SmartAsset, Port St. Lucie has the highest median middle-class income in Florida, at $86,241. The threshold for the middle class in Port St. Lucie is $57,494, while anything above $172,482 is upper class.<\/p>\n

Port St. Lucie is 33rd overall in the country, with San Jose, California, seeing the first spot on the list. The median middle-class income is $148,226.<\/p>\n

Here’s what the median middle-class income is in other Florida cities:<\/p>\n

Cape Coral (36) – $85,584<\/p>\n

Tampa (41) – $84,114<\/p>\n

Orlando (56) – $77,597<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg (62) – $73,048<\/p>\n

Jacksonville (63) – $72,389<\/p>\n

Miami (76) – $66,337<\/p>\n

Hialeah (93) – $57,151<\/p>\n

What is Florida’s minimum wage? <\/p>\n

As of May 2026, Florida’s\u00a0minimum wage for non-tipped employees is $14 an hour, and for tipped employees is $10.98 an hour.<\/p>\n

Floridians voted back in 2020 to raise the\u00a0state\u2019s minimum wage<\/a>\u00a0by a dollar each September until it hits a $15 cap in September 2026.<\/p>\n

How much do Florida’s highest-earning households make? <\/p>\n

To be in the top 5% of earners in Florida, you need to make $499,872, according to\u00a0GoBankingRates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contributing: Paige Moore<\/a>, Arizona Republic<\/p>\n

Samantha Neely is a trending reporter for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida, covering pop culture, theme parks, breaking news and more. You can get all of Florida\u2019s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at\u00a0https:\/\/floridatoday.com\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida ranks in the middle for highest middle-class household income<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do you consider yourself to be\u00a0middle class? The definition of America’s middle class is not entirely clear; however,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,118789,118788,89279,118787,54343],"class_list":["post-278365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-household-income","tag-household-incomes","tag-middle-class","tag-national-median-income","tag-pew-research-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}