The middle class covers a wide range of income levels, with the lower middle class beginning around $50,000 in annual income and the upper middle class landing somewhere closer to $150,000, according to the American Community Survey as conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. With economic changes ranging from wage stagnation to increased costs of living, it’s getting harder to be middle class, and even the salary to be considered upper class varies from state to state, and that money does not go as far as it once did. Costs of living here are 38.5% higher than the national average, and housing is 98.8% above the national average, Thus, unsurprisingly, the minimum salary to be upper middle class starts at $142,964.