working class
Last updatedWhat to know
Working class refers to a subsection of workers or laborers, defined in various ways by researchers and organizations, with a general association including manual labor and blue/pink-collar work. Historically, Karl Marx defined the working class as the proletariat, i.e., those who created the goods and services that helped establish a society’s overall wealth.
When using the term, it’s helpful to be as specific as possible and ensure that any broad discussion of labor considered “working class” does not present it as racially homogeneous (or overly associated with men). Different speakers may use terms like working class and white working class for various rhetorical purposes. A politician invoking the working class, for example, may be doing so to set that kind of labor apart from white-collar labor in a different way than, say, a sociologist.
Additional resources
- Understanding the Working Class (Demos)
- Looking Into What Americans Mean by “Working Class” (Gallup)
- Working class? Or white working class? (NPR)
Summary
Working class refers to a subsection of workers or laborers, defined in various ways by researchers and organizations, with a general association including manual labor and blue/pink-collar work. When using the term, it may be helpful to be as specific as possible and ensure that any broad discussion of labor considered “working class” does not present it as racially homogeneous (or overly associated with men).