The middle stratum in Israel – defined by international convention as households whose income is between 75 percent and 125 percent of median household income – is quite different from the prevailing image of the middle class to be found in the political Israeli mainstream discourse, literature, sociology and the mass media. It resembles more closely the sociological characteristics attributed to the working class. This is what emerges from the research “The State of the Middle Stratum in Israel, 1992-2010,” which examines the middle stratum, as defined above, at three points in time: 1992, 2002, and 2010. The study, conducted by Noga Dagan-Buzaglo and Etty Konor-Attias, found that the social gaps were increasing, with greater disparities between the median middle stratum income and those of the rich and poor.
A demonstrator with a banner: “Save the middle class” during a massive social protest in Tel-Aviv, July 2011 (Photo: Activestills)
Bourgeois politicians looking for electoral support from Israel’s “middle class” in last Tuesday’s elections may have been barking up the wrong tree; the study released Monday by the Adva Center for equality and social justice in Israel found that the middle stratum in Israel is shrinking, falling from 30.8 percent of households in 1992 to 27.8% in 2010. During the same period, the upper stratum and especially the lower stratum increased in size. Another development was the increase in the gaps between the median incomes of households in the three strata.
According to Adva on 2010, 28.5 percent of Jewish households belonged to the middle stratum, compared to 23.4 percent of Arab households. While among Jews the shrinking of the middle stratum was accompanied by an enlargement of the upper stratum, among Arabs it was accompanied by an enlargement of the lower stratum.
During the period examined, the most outstanding change was the increase of the share of households headed by second-generation Mizrahi Jews and new immigrants from the former Soviet Union (1990s and later) in the upper stratum (albeit in the lower part thereof): in 2010, 45.3 percent of households headed by Mizrahi Jews and 27.2 percent of households headed by new immigrants from the former Soviet Union were to be found in the upper stratum.
The majority of households in the middle stratum have two wage earners, but there is a big difference between the upper and lower parts of the stratum: in 40.5 percent of households in the lower part there is only one bread winner, compared with 28.5 percent in the upper part. In 2010, in contrast to 1992, two breadwinners were needed to be considered part of the middle class.
In 2010, the most common vocations of household heads in the middle stratum were skilled workers in manufacturing and construction and sales and service personnel. These two categories accounted for approximately half of household heads in the lower-middle stratum and 40 percent of household heads in the upper- middle stratum. An additional third worked in the free and technical professions or as clerical workers. In contrast, academic and administrative professions are characteristic of the top stratum, contributing to a clear dividing line between the top stratum and the two lower ones.
The biggest employer of household heads in the middle stratum is the public services, just as it was twenty years ago. In contrast, their representation in the hi-tech and financial services sectors of the economy is low.
When it comes to higher education, the middle stratum resembles the lower stratum more than the top one. In fact, the percentage of college graduates is the most outstanding line of demarcation between the middle and upper strata. Approximately one-fourth of household heads in the middle stratum are college graduates, in comparison with half in the top stratum. In the middle stratum as well as the lower one, the largest group is that with household heads holding high school or vocational degrees, a situation that has not changed over the years. During the same period, the data indicate that the rewards for education were higher for men than for women.
According to Adva research “If we look for localities that typify the middle stratum, we find that the Jewish development towns fit the mold: the percentage of households in them belonging to the middle stratum is higher than that in Arab localities, on the one hand, and higher than in the localities constituting the Forum of 15 most affluent localities, on the other. The percentage of middle-stratum households in the development towns increased between 2002 and 2010; in contrast, the percentage of middle-stratum households in Arab localities decreased, at the same time that the percentage of lower-stratum households increased.”
