What is the difference between Middle and working class?

Many people who you'd call 'working class' are self-employed and can earn more than what you'd call 'Middle class', so how can you categorise by earnings?

I think if you use a class system to categorise people to create a sort of hierarchy is quite pretentious imo.

This.

In general terms, middle-class is someone who earns money by selling their intellect, their expertise and their judgment. Working-class is someone who sells either their physical labour or doing work that can be done without extensive training (call centre). An upper-class person is someone who is either independently wealthy and does not need to work, or who by virtue of their birth could be considered to be part of that milieu

There are also (very much blurred, these days) cultural markers; I hope you'll forgive these offensively stereotyped pen portraits but they're generally consistent with my experiences of the English class system

Upper-class people wear old sweaters at home and out-of-date dinner jackets when they go out; they go to public schools, like dogs, play cricket, follow rugby and drive Volvos or Range Rovers. They enjoy shooting and riding, and read The Telegraph. They go on holiday to America, the East or Australia. They speak with a charming clipped accent and are characterised by extreme overstatement or extreme understatement by turn ("These potatoes really are bloody marvellous, they are the most delightful thing I've ever eaten", or... "Blast, my leg has been blown off. It's just a scratch, I suppose I shall have to take myself awf to hospital" ) They're comfortable drinking at home (which is a Georgian terrace when in London, and a Grade II listed Jacobean manor in the country); port is good, whisky is better. They go to Eton, then Balliol College Oxford, then a stint in the army and now works as an art dealer. They're a member of the Travellers Club and vote Conservative. They had one homosexual experience at university, but are now married to their third wife, and have three children and a mistress.

The middle-class man goes to a grammar school, and speaks with a faintly northern or estuary accent which has been softened by their time at a mid-tier redbrick. They follow football (a sop to a working-class background), listen to Radio 4, read the Guardian and go on holiday to places like Greece and Tunisia. They are members of the National Trust. They are adorably tentative and polite, always apologising. They were probably a socialist at university, and now a moderate Labour voter. They live in a comfortable Edwardian detached house somewhere like Surbiton. They now work as a department head in a former polytechnic teaching civil engineering. They are married and have one child, and tends to embarass themselves by making drunken declarations of love at the work Christmas Party to pretty young things.

A working-class person went to the local state school (with short spells in the Borstal). They follow football fanatically, watch Eastenders and go on holiday wherever the drink is cheap and the sun is hot (Spain). They tend to go out to drink rather than do it at home. They speak with a Cockney accent "How ya doin me old guvnor" (or something like that). They have one O-level (as the GCSEs were called back then) and work at a body shop doing panelbeating. They are a member of the local working men's association and read The Sun. They live in a squat two-bedroom semi-detached in Slough, are on wifey number 2, and have two children (one of whom has gone to university). They used to be a Labour voter but now vote UKIP.

I'd say your middle class definition should kind of overlap with what your upper class definition says. People from Surbiton generally tend to speak with an RP accent; I'm from there, haha. To me, middle class: kids are at private day or boarding school/good grammar school, mostly enjoys rugby, Telegraph reader, Conservative voter.

In general terms, middle-class is someone who earns money by selling their intellect, their expertise and their judgment. Working-class is someone who sells either their physical labour or doing work that can be done without extensive training (call centre). An upper-class person is someone who is either independently wealthy and does not need to work, or who by virtue of their birth could be considered to be part of that milieu

There are also (very much blurred, these days) cultural markers; I hope you'll forgive these offensively stereotyped pen portraits but they're generally consistent with my experiences of the English class system

Upper-class people wear old sweaters at home and out-of-date dinner jackets when they go out; they go to public schools, like dogs, play cricket, follow rugby and drive Volvos or Range Rovers. They enjoy shooting and riding, and read The Telegraph. They go on holiday to America, the East or Australia. They speak with a charming clipped accent and are characterised by extreme overstatement or extreme understatement by turn ("These potatoes really are bloody marvellous, they are the most delightful thing I've ever eaten", or... "Blast, my leg has been blown off. It's just a scratch, I suppose I shall have to take myself awf to hospital" ) They're comfortable drinking at home (which is a Georgian terrace when in London, and a Grade II listed Jacobean manor in the country); port is good, whisky is better. They go to Eton, then Balliol College Oxford, then a stint in the army and now works as an art dealer. They're a member of the Travellers Club and vote Conservative. They had one homosexual experience at university, but are now married to their third wife, and have three children and a mistress.

The middle-class man goes to a grammar school, and speaks with a faintly northern or estuary accent which has been softened by their time at a mid-tier redbrick. They follow football (a sop to a working-class background), listen to Radio 4, read the Guardian and go on holiday to places like Greece and Tunisia. They are members of the National Trust. They are adorably tentative and polite, always apologising. They were probably a socialist at university, and now a moderate Labour voter. They live in a comfortable Edwardian detached house somewhere like Surbiton. They now work as a department head in a former polytechnic teaching civil engineering. They are married and have one child, and tends to embarass themselves by making drunken declarations of love at the work Christmas Party to pretty young things.

A working-class person went to the local state school (with short spells in the Borstal). They follow football fanatically, watch Eastenders and go on holiday wherever the drink is cheap and the sun is hot (Spain). They tend to go out to drink rather than do it at home. They speak with a Cockney accent "How ya doin me old guvnor" (or something like that). They have one O-level (as the GCSEs were called back then) and work at a body shop doing panelbeating. They are a member of the local working men's association and read The Sun. They live in a squat two-bedroom semi-detached in Slough, are on wifey number 2, and have two children (one of whom has gone to university). They used to be a Labour voter but now vote UKIP.

This.

There is an upper-middle class, of course (by my reckoning privately educated, owns at least one house in addition to their primary residence, high levels of educational attainment across the family, often with at least a dash of aristocratic blood in there, often in the upper echelons of the professional classes... chancery barristers, consultants in the medical profession, top architects etc). David Cameron is a good example of upper-middle.

And many middle or upper-middle might share some cultural traits with upper-class people. But it was really supposed to be a jokey, stereotypical pen portrait rather than a genuine class analysis.