What is working class?

So what? I’m working class, I was raised in a working class household and I’m paid a proportionate wage for my labour, expertise and education.

That little pearl of wisdom was from Steph over at Steph’s blog. Apparently she is a lawyer, yet she is labouring under the misapprehension that being a lawyer makes her working class!

She’s not alone however; 53% of people in the UK consider themselves to be working class, according to a recent survey, even though only a small portion of those actually are.

Conducted by the Future Foundation, the survey found that 36% of builders questioned regarded themselves as being middle-class, while 29% of bank managers said they were working-class.

Few would see builders as middle class, or indeed bank managers as working class.

So what is working class?

Traditionally it was the blue collar/white collar divide that decided one’s class. Or the type of work, usually manual labour = working class; whereas doctors, lawyers and bank managers were middle class.

Generally it is accepted that those from the working class, earn their wages (as apposed to salary), either weekly or monthly. Typical examples of those in working class employment are miners, labourers, dock workers, factory workers and other similar occupations.

Karl Marx had his own view on what was working class, he considered it to be anyone that earns wages but does not own the means of production. Even in this definition, Ms Harris would not be working class.

Today it is seen as a proud thing to be working class, even though most jobs in the 21st century do not involve manual labour, moreover those that do, such as builders and plumbers, often pay better than traditional working class jobs such as bank managers.

In Britain today there is a simpler way to determine whether one is working class or middle class; skin colour. Typically if you are black, you’re working class. Worse if you are a negro immigrant you are more likely to form part of the underclass and be in the lowest, possibly even below minimum wage jobs.

Of course being white doesn’t automatically mean that you are middle class but it generally means that you’d have a better job, particularly than an immigrant, as they take the jobs that no one else wants.