occupations

Experts generally agree that the occupations held by middle-class earners center on salaried office professions like K-12 teachers and human resources specialists or high-skill technical labor.

Fourteen of their interview subjects, representing a range of ages, occupations and religions, are represented in the play.

Many in the food service industry – one of the most popular occupations in any economy – could find themselves unable to learn new skills for a different job.

"By limiting this benefit to just tipped occupations," he added, "you are necessarily only focusing on a very narrow slice of workers in America right now."

He counts the number of workers in traditional tipped occupations, including wait staff, barbers and hairdressers, at about 4 million, or just 2.5% of all workers.