The lower classes accounted for only 13.6% of the total net compensation in 2016 and the upper classes for 29.9%.
The three middle classes are composed of almost 74 million individual wage earners in 2016, representing 45.1% of the total 163.5 million receiving W-2s in 2016. There are about 40 million individual wage earners in the lower middle class, about 22 million in the middle middle class, and about 11 million in the upper middle class.
Just over 80 million individual wage earners, about 49.3% of the total, made less than middle class incomes in 2016, that is, less than $30,000 annually.
Just over 9 million individuals made upper class incomes, that is, above $125,000 annually.
The upper class is just 5.6% of the total work force but makes almost $2.3 trillion of the net compensation.
The tax farmers eye the middle income classes because that's where the bulk of the money is to be harvested, about $4.3 trillion in 2016.
The lower classes, again almost half of the wage earners, account for only just over $1 trillion of the net compensation in 2016.
W-2 data isn't the whole story of income in the United States but is probably the most accurate snapshot indicating what's what and who's who for the "Why me, Lord?" question those who struggle for the legal tender ask themselves every April 15 or thereabouts.
