The annual salary of the middle class in New York has been announced: “It’s scary”

The minimum annual income required for a family of four to be considered part of the middle class in New York City rose to $81,396 in 2023, according to the Pew Research Center and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Getting into the middle class in New York State requires a lot of money, as soaring inflation and slow wage growth have driven up the cost of living.

Living in New York State is becoming increasingly expensive for the middle class, according to the Pew Research Center and the federal government.

In 2023, the amount is $7,000 more than what a couple with two children had in 2022, when the minimum income was $74,908, and about $20,000 more than the $60,328 required for a middle-class life in 2016 year.

Meanwhile, joining the middle class in the Big Apple will cost even more: the minimum annual income was $318,406, according to separate research from SmartAsset.

“It’s scary,” said financial literacy expert David DeLisle. “Housing is becoming expensive for most people, and that’s creating a bigger and bigger gap.”

DeLisle pointed to record inflation, which has soared 17 percent since President Joe Biden took office, leading to a shrinking middle class across the country.

“Revenues have not kept up with inflation as much as we have seen all other expenses rise,” DeLisle explains.

New York’s minimum income level in 2023 was second only to Hawaii, where a family of four needed $82,630 to be considered middle class. The District of Columbia matched the cost of New York State, which was slightly more expensive than neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut.

By comparison, the median income for a middle-class family of four in 2021 was $70,784, according to Census data.

The states with the lowest incomes that could be considered middle class were Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, West Virginia and Mississippi.

A family of four living in Mississippi needed to earn $60,431.

In 2022, the Pew Research Center conducted a study that found that the share of American adults who can be classified as middle class has declined significantly over the five decades from 1971 to 2021. Fifty years ago, 61 percent of US adults were middle class, while only 14 percent had higher incomes. However, in 2021, the number of adults classified as middle class fell to 50 percent, while the number of those in higher income brackets increased to 21 percent.

The proportion of people with low incomes has also increased – 29 percent in 2021, up from 25 percent in 1971, the study found.

Meanwhile, the rich are getting richer at a faster rate than those in the middle and lower income classes, according to the study.

Median income for upper-level households rose 69 percent from 1970 ($130,008) to 2020 ($219,572), according to Pew. Among middle-income families, their average income increased by 50 percent, from $59,934 in 1970 to $90,131 in 2020. Incomes for low-income families rose 45 percent, from $20,604 in 1970 to $29,963 in 2020.

If current trends continue, the middle class could shrink even further.

“If we don’t have that middle class, things will be bad and unsustainable,” says DeLisle. “We’re going to have people who can’t afford to live and people who have more money than they know what to do with.”