i think in most peoples eyes, upper class means top hats and mansions and ferraris and private jets and shit, and six figures doesnt get you that, it gets you an upgraded version of the middle-class lifestyle (if it even gets you that these days lol)

but the primary role of middle class in public discourse is to obscure real class relations, so its doing its job perfectly. white collar salary workers mostly get offended as shit if you call them working class, people look at you funny if you suggest that they have different class interests to small business owners, nobody is thinking about who owns/controls the means of production, and if everyone can just be middle class then everyone can be friends and theres no need for any sort of class conflict :)