Wage bands in the UK:
< £10,000/y: on the breadline. People here are are usually unemployed, immigrants, the disabled, struggling single mothers, etc. Called the lower classes by conservatives. Actually its very difficult to be really poor with our strong welfare state and minimum wage levels (yay).
£10,000-20,000: Average workers, about 90% of the population. These people work hard and are taxed hard, and actually generate most of the wealth and most of the taxes the country has. Usually called the working class.
£20,000-40,000: "Professional" workers. Skilled craftsmen, managers, doctors, etc. Whatever skills, experience or knowledge they have is enough to get them high wages. Upper-working class. Work hard but are taxed like crazy and always were, especially on retirement.
£40-000-80,000: Here's where it gets kinda strange. People up here can sometimes have legitimate reasons for such high incomes: stressed executives, high-profile lawyers, MPs, scientists. But most don't. You will find most of the people in this band living comfortably, with a villa in Spain and a yacht, working smaller shifts than the "lower classes". This is the middle class, and upper-middle class, Thatcher's darlings. The higher up here you go, the more your family and connections mean more than your skills. Strangely, these people don't really suffer much of a tax burden.
£80,000+: Well, there isn't much work you can do to earn you this kind of money. People who get this much are usually people who get to dictate their own wages: chief executive fatcats who lower their workers wages but give themselves massive pay rises and absolutely huge pensions, landowners, etc. I wish it was a socialist delusion but its not. These people are often the direct descendents of the landowners William the Conquerer put here when he stole the land from the Saxons. They don't do much work, often have most of their savings in a tax-free haven, and don't contribute much to society. They are the upper-classes, and the people who would pay £10,000 for a parking space at Harrods.
