Following the 2024 presidential election, commentators speculated about a seemingly wide ideological gulf: 56 percent of working-class voters cast their vote for Donald Trump, and an equal percentage of college-educated voters did the same for Kamala Harris.1 A new analysis, however, shows that working-class and college-educated voters are similar in their support for progressive economic policies.
A Center for American Progress analysis of data from the 2024 election and review of pre-election surveys finds that working-class voters—defined as voters without a four-year college degree—and college-educated voters want similar things: decent pay for hard work, a strong voice on the job, and for the rich to pay their fair share to support public goods. (see the Methodological appendix for a full discussion of the sources used in the analysis) Both working-class and college-educated workers overwhelmingly support unions; a higher federal minimum wage; higher taxes on the rich; greater public investment in the roads, bridges, and other infrastructure Americans use every day; and an expansion of the social safety net, especially Medicaid. In particular, this issue brief finds that:
- Clear majorities of both working-class and college-educated people wanted a decent minimum wage, with 67 percent of working-class and 58 percent of college-educated people strongly or somewhat supporting a $17 per hour federal minimum wage.
- Americans across all levels of education strongly supported unions, with 58 percent of people with some college or less education and 61 percent of college-educated people saying “the large reduction in the percentage of workers represented by unions has been very or somewhat bad for working people.”
- Support was equally high among working-class and college-educated voters for higher taxes on the rich: 63 percent of working-class voters and 65 percent of college-educated voters supported raising the tax rates on those earning more than $400,000 per year.
- Working-class and college-educated voters agreed on the need for large public investments in infrastructure, with 80 percent of working-class voters and 82 percent of college-educated voters supporting a $1.2 trillion investment to build and repair roads, bridges, airports, public transportation, water systems, broadband, and the electric grid.
- Voters favored a stronger social safety net, with three-quarters of both working-class and college-educated voters supporting an expansion of Medicaid to cover more people earning low incomes.
While this issue brief shows that working-class and college-educated voters have similar perspectives on progressive economic policies, 2024 election data from the Cooperative Election Study (CES) reveal that areas of disagreement exist, especially on some aspects of immigration policy. Given these divides, it remains to be seen whether having a strong pro-worker policy agenda and message is sufficient for politicians to win working-class votes. Still, supporting pro-worker policies is likely a necessary part of garnering support from the working class as well as from college-educated voters.
Who is the working class?
A large majority of America’s workers are part of the working class, although the working class makes up a smaller share of the workforce nearly every year as college attainment increases.2 In 2023, 60.7 percent of the labor force—totaling 93.6 million people—did not have a four-year college degree, compared with the 39.3 percent who did.
The working class is racially and ethnically diverse, and its members primarily work not in construction or manufacturing but in the service sector.3 More than three-quarters, or 78 percent, of the working class works in services, with 12.8 percent working in construction, 8.3 percent working in manufacturing, and less than 1 percent working in agriculture. The working class has larger proportions of Black and Hispanic workers than does the college-educated workforce: 13.3 percent of the working class is Black and roughly one-quarter is Hispanic, while only 8.5 percent of workers with four-year college degrees are Black and 10.5 percent are Hispanic.
Working-class Americans struggle economically in ways that workers with college degrees often do not. In 2023, the unemployment rate for the working class, at nearly 5 percent, was twice as high as the rate for college-educated workers, and working-class people who have jobs receive much lower pay. The most common occupations for working-class people include truck drivers, laborers, janitors, clerks and cashiers, and home health aides; workers with college degrees most commonly are software developers, accountants, lawyers, chief executives, and physicians.4 As a result, even after controlling for demographic factors, college-educated workers earned 75 percent more than workers without college degrees in 2022.5
Progressive Economic Policies Are Popular Among Working-Class and College-Educated Voters Alike
Surveys conducted around the election in 2024 reveal widespread support among both working-class and college-educated Americans for progressive economic policies, including those supporting a higher federal minimum wage; unions; a higher tax rate for the highest earners; large investments in infrastructure; and expansion of the social safety net. Though areas of disagreement existed between working-class and college-educated voters, on all of these issues support was unanimously high and often similar regardless of education.
A large majority of people supported raising the federal minimum wage. As shown in Figure 1, before the 2024 election, two-thirds of working-class likely voters “strongly” or “somewhat” supported raising the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour, the highest level that would be established by the Raise the Wage Act currently before Congress.6 Among college-educated respondents, support was slightly lower but still a clear majority, at 58 percent.
Support for unions was also high among both working-class and college-educated people. Across all levels of education, Americans felt that the decline in the number of workers represented by unions has been bad for working people. (see Figure 2) When voters were asked whether they approve or disapprove of labor unions, their support for unions was similar or even higher.7 Strengthening unions is a key component of an effective progressive economic policy.8 Stronger unions empower workers to bargain collectively for higher wages and better working conditions, reducing inequality and offering many working people a route to the middle class. This, in turn, has long encouraged unions to increase support for pro-worker policies. In fact, according to CAP analysis of CES data, union membership was associated with much higher support for progressive economic policies among working-class voters. In 2024, while 62.7 percent of nonunion working-class voters favored increasing the tax rate for people earning more than $400,000 annually, 68.5 percent of working-class union members supported this tax increase.
Working-class and college-educated voters demonstrated similarly strong support for raising the tax rate of high earners. As shown in Figure 3, just less than two-thirds of both working-class and college-educated voters—at 63 percent and 64.5 percent, respectively—supported raising the tax rate for people earning more than $400,000 per year to 35 percent.9
In addition to raising taxes on the wealthy, working-class and college-educated voters supported government spending on infrastructure. When asked about an investment of $150 billion annually in infrastructure including roads and bridges, rail, public transit, airports, water systems, broadband internet, and the electric grid—essentially, what the Biden-Harris administration made law in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—such a policy was overwhelmingly popular among both working-class and college-educated voters in 2024, with more than 80 percent of both supporting the policy.10 (see Figure 4) Large public investments in infrastructure and manufacturing projects were the signature pro-worker achievement of the Biden-Harris administration, and previous CAP analysis found that these investments increased support for Harris in the 2024 election, but only by a very small amount.11
Large majorities of working-class and college-educated voters also supported expansions to the social safety net. Figure 5 shows that three-quarters of working-class and college-educated voters alike favored expanding Medicaid to cover individuals making less than $25,000 or families making less than $40,000 annually.12 Although voters across education levels support expanding Medicaid coverage, the CES data also show that a majority of both working-class and college-educated voters favored requiring able-bodied adults under 64 without dependents to have a job in order to receive Medicaid.
Although working-class and college-educated voters agreed on a wide range of economic policies, they disagree on some economic issues, such as student loan forgiveness: A slight majority of college-educated voters supported, while a slight majority of working-class voters opposed, a policy that would forgive up to $20,000 of student loan debt per person, according to CAP analysis of 2024 CES data. Other areas of disagreement include some aspects of immigration policy.
Yet although college-educated voters disagreed with the working class on some immigration policies and immigration is often viewed as a major divide, a majority of both working-class and college-educated voters supported a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants who work, pay taxes, and do not commit crimes.13 According to CES data, 54.2 percent of working-class voters in 2024 favored a policy that would “grant legal status to all illegal immigrants who have held jobs and paid taxes for at least 3 years, and not been convicted of any felony crimes,” as did 59 percent of college-educated voters.
Conclusion
Year after year, voters consistently rank the economy as a top issue, meaning support for pro-worker policies likely remains important for retaining support from both working-class and college-educated voters.14
Although electoral outcomes have diverged between working-class and college-educated voters, both groups strongly support progressive economic policies that would raise the minimum wage, strengthen unions, raise taxes on the wealthy, invest in infrastructure, and expand the social safety net. It is not clear whether demonstrating strong support for these policies is sufficient to ensure candidates win votes among the working class. However, progressive economic issues have wide support among all voters regardless of education level, and they may offer a potential means through which candidates could build a governing coalition that crosses educational lines.
Methodological appendix
The data used in this report come from three surveys conducted in 2024: a nationally representative Pew Research Center poll from January asking adults about their perspective on labor unions,15 a nationally representative Data for Progress survey of likely voters in April asking about increases to the federal minimum wage,16 and a preliminary release of the Cooperative Election Study (CES, formerly the Cooperative Congressional Election Study or CCES) pre-election voter survey from October to early November.17
Figure 1 reports results from the Data for Progress poll, Figure 2 reports results from the Pew poll, and Figures 3 through 5 are based on CAP analysis of CES data. CES, conducted during each election year, offers demographic and voting data on individuals to produce a representative sample of voters for each election. This analysis only includes respondents who reported voting in the 2024 election. Respondents are considered “working class” if they have less education than a four-year college degree.