Working class facts for kids

Statue of a coal miner in Charleston, West Virginia.

Working class is a term used to describe people in society who have jobs which are not academic or highly paid. They're usually jobs which are physical, especially when they are paid an hourly wage.

Different societies will have different ideas about what "working class" is. People started talking about the working class after industrialization in the early 19th century. Karl Marx wrote about the working class.

Working class contrasts with middle class and upper class, which are above working class. The underclass is below the working class.

Related pages

• Apprentice
• Constitution
• Constitutional economics
• Globalization
• Household income in the United States
• Minimum wage
• Social class
  • Bourgeoisie
  • Middle class
  • Proletariat
  • Upper class
• Trade union

Images for kids

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  working class, a term of great importance in sociology and politics.

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  Working-class life in Victorian Wetherby, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

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  Striking teamsters battling police on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 1934