Existing definitions

The Oxford Dictionary defines the 'working class as 'the socioeconomic group consisting of people who are employed in manual or industrial work'.

Demos.org, a left-leaning think tank, defines the term as anyone who is part of the workforce and does not have a college degree. Many journalism organizations use this definition, including the New York Times.

The problem with these definitions

I think these definitions are doing us a disservice. I would argue they divide the true working class based on largely arbitrary categorizations such as education, or the type of work they perform, and serve only to benefit the capitalist class by turning workers against one another.

A better definition

We should a member of the working class by one simple attribute: they need to perform some sort of labor to earn their money.

It doesn't matter if they have a degree or not, perform manual or creative or administrative labor, if they make minimum wage or $300 an hour. The fact that they are laboring for a wage, as opposed to living off investment income, inheritance, or parasitic behavior (ex: landlords), automatically places them among the ranks of the working class.

Excepting potential exclusions such as police (I know a lot of people consider police to not be members of the working class), I believe this definition to be universal, and that it promotes much better class solidarity.

What does everyone else think?