<P> The "professional class", also called the "upper middle class," consists mostly of highly educated white collar salaried professionals, whose work is largely self - directed . In 2005, these household incomes commonly exceed $100,000 per year . Class members typically hold graduate degrees, with educational attainment serving as the main distinguishing feature of this class . </P> <P> These professionals typically conceptualize, create, consult, and supervise . As a result, upper middle class employees enjoy great autonomy in the work place and are more satisfied with their careers than non-professional middle class individuals . In terms of financial wealth income, the professional middle class fits in the top third, but seldom reach the top 5% of American society . According to sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert, James Henslin, Joseph Hickey, and William Thompson, the upper middle class constitutes 15% of the population . </P> <P> The upper middle class has grown...and its composition has changed . Increasingly salaried managers and professionals have replaced individual business owners and independent professionals . The key to the success of the upper - middle - class is the growing importance of educational certification...its lifestyles and opinions are becoming increasingly normative for the whole society . It is in fact a porous class, open to people...who earn the right credentials . </P> <P> Values and mannerisms are difficult to pinpoint for a group encompassing millions of persons . Naturally, any large group of people will feature social diversity to some extent . However, some generalizations can be made using education and income as class defining criteria . William Thompson and Joseph Hickey noted that upper middle class individuals have a more direct and confident manner of speech . In her 1989 publication Effects of Social Class and Interactive Setting on Maternal Speech, Erica Hoff - Ginsberg found that among her surveyed subjects, "upper - middle class mothers talked more per unit of time and sustained longer interactions with children". She also found that the speech of upper middle - class mothers differs "in its functional, discourse, and lexico - syntactic properties", from those in the working class . </P>

What is middle class in the united states