The reports have been a mixture of data analysis and anecdotal intra- and inter-generational stories of middle class angst. The recent series comes after the newspaper held focus groups to listen to readers discuss their views of the initial report.

They also created an interactive database, allowing readers to compare their own income with national statistics.

Other highlights:
- Most workers today make less per hour, adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1973 (household income stays up because more spouses and children are working and people are working longer hours)
- Pay for workers in their 20s has fallen steadily for decades. Young people are starting out much lower on the wage ladder than their parents. White men have seen biggest decline, slipping nearly 29 percent.
- Mid-career workers, women and blacks steadily losing pay increases
- The combination of lower starting pay and smaller mid-career wage hikes for later generations has caused a growing earnings and wealth gap between the young and the old in Ohio and across the nation
- If the bulk of the income gains over the decades went to earlier generations, when older workers retire they may now be replaced by workers with markedly lower wages – resulting in an overall drop in purchasing power and the nation’s standard of living (this according to John E. Morton, director of the Pew’s Economic Mobility Project
- The bar for an education that guarantees a good paying job has moved higher
- Younger workers will have to be more flexible – move to where the jobs are, have more than one job in a lifetime, have fewer kids
- Workers have adapted, but are running out of ways to cope. Less time to provide for household work and childcare, which is by far the largest expense for a two-earner family.
- Increased anxiety registered by pollsters about the health of the middle class may be an important way of viewing the middle class squeeze
- There’s disagreement about the impact of global trade on workers – some, like researcher and author Alan Tonelson say manufacturing jobs won’t be replaced with high-tech jobs because those will also be lost to countries with lower wages.