Despite her new title, U.S. Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is a pretty typical working-class New Yorker. She was born to Puerto Rican parents in the Bronx, has a few grand tucked away in her savings account, cares deeply about her local community, and up until very recently, made rent by waiting tables and bartending. But with her election to Congress on November 6, one of those things changed in a big way: her income. Now, she’ll be making $174,000 per year.

Pew defines the middle class as those whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the national median, which was $57,617 as of 2016; Ocasio-Cortez’s new salary is far from that (and is a lot more than most people in her prior industry take home). Despite the pay bump, the 29-year-old politician has given strong signals that she’ll continue to identify with and uphold her working-class values — something that sets Ocasio-Cortez apart from the vast majority of her new coworkers on the Hill.

The Republican Party and conservative media have tried to shame Ocasio-Cortez for her pre-election financial status, also implying that her class identity is a sham because she wears nice (rented) clothes to work. Behavior like this is not surprising coming from those who support a Republican Party that’s currently pushing policies that actively harm poor and working-class people, especially those who are women of color — even though many pander to the working class during election campaigns. Ocasio-Cortez’s honesty about her financial situation and refusal to be cowed by right-wing attacks has given working-class Americans some hope that a new class of representatives might be a bit more like them, and actually start looking out for their interests.

But what values are we talking about here? Even though we hear so much about the “working class” in the United States, many still don’t understand who is being discussed and what the term means. We’re here to explain.

What is class?

Class is a way of describing the economic, political, and cultural divisions in our societal hierarchy. Your social class depends on the work you do, the money you earn, and how much control you ultimately have over your own — and other people’s — labor. Class distinctions aren't limited to the United States; societies around the world impose these social hierarchies and have for thousands of years (the English word “class” comes from the Latin classis, which was a word used by Roman census takers to classify citizens based on wealth). Those at the top who control the means of production and the resulting capital they generate are considered upper class, while the workers whose labor actually produces goods and services are generally considered middle or working class.

Class also breaks down into further designations like the upper middle class, the lower middle class, the working poor. At the top of the top is the capitalist class — that eye-poppingly rich 1% of the population who controls over 38% of the country’s wealth, and seem intent on keeping it all to themselves.

So who is considered to be a member of the working class, and what makes it different from middle class?

The definition of working class is fairly straightforward, but the actual application of the term gets dicey, fast.

The terms “middle class” and “working class” are often used interchangeably, but the latter has increasingly become understood as a political identity. The concrete difference between the two often comes down to education. Working class individuals are generally non-college educated, while those in the middle class are more likely to be college graduates. Members of the working class also typically work for an hourly wage instead of a salary and have less overall job security than middle- or upper-class folk. In the U.S., they’re concentrated heavily in the Midwest, more than half of them live in rural areas, and a significant percentage of them identify as Republicans (though the working class also has a strong radical and leftist tradition).