Brits from privileged, wealthy backgrounds are better protected than ever from ending up in a ‘working class job’, new research suggests.
And for those from an underprivileged background, the chance of landing a top position is smaller – even if they have the required intellectual ability.
A comprehensive new analysis based on more than 90,000 UK adults reveals the shocking effect of class and status on employment.
Well-off families are ‘hoarding’ the best opportunities for children who are less academically gifted, to the cost of their poorer peers.
By the age of 30, around 70 per cent of men and women from privileged, wealthy backgrounds are in highly paid or prestigious positions, the study says.
Only 10 per cent have ‘working class’ occupations, such as builder, cleaner, mechanic, plumber or hairdresser, while the remainder end up in ‘intermediate’ jobs.
The study suggests that posh but stupid types – epitomized by the TV character Tim Nice-But-Dim played by Harry Enfield – really do exist.
Such types aren’t particularly academically gifted, but yet they manage to land top-paying jobs largely because of their privileged and wealthy background.
Study author Dr Robert de Vries, a lecturer in quantitative sociology at the University of Kent, said the UK’s glass floor is ‘even sturdier than we realised’.
The metaphorical ‘glass floor’ – a concept that’s long been used in commonly used in social and economic studies – is a barrier between the rich and the poor.
It stops the poor from rising to the top (known as ‘upward mobility’) while preventing the rich from falling to the bottom (‘downward mobility’).
‘Children of the most advantaged families face almost no risk of significant downward mobility,’ Dr de Vries said.
‘The most likely outcome for them is a smooth path into a highly prestigious or highly paid job – or both.’
Dr de Vries thinks privileged families are able to ‘use their resources to guarantee that their kids are academically and professionally successful’.
‘This can be wealth-related – for example, paying for private school or extra tuition, buying houses near high-performing state schools, financial support for low or unpaid career opportunities in competitive industries,’ he told MailOnline.
‘But it can also be social and cultural – for example, family networks with beneficial contacts and “insider” expertise.’
On the other side of the coin, underprivileged workers – for example the daughter of a factory worker – may never be able to fill a top-paying role even if they’re perfectly capable of excelling in it.
The new findings are based on an analysis of data from more than 94,000 respondents to the UK Labour Force Survey (LFS), the UK’s largest representative household survey.
LFS gathers personal data including job, income and academic background, while taking into account the same information from parents.
For this study, the sample was restricted to respondents aged 30 to 59 whose main current activity was paid employment, including part-time and self-employment.
Dr de Vries defines ‘working class jobs’ as low-paying, low-skill occupations that typically require less education.
‘Examples of jobs in this category would be non-managerial admin or clerical workers – these are one of the biggest groups, especially local government admin,’ he said.
‘Also, tradespeople including plumbers and electricians, chefs, care workers, receptionists, hairdressers and sales workers.’
Meanwhile, highly paid or prestigious positions – such as doctors, lawyers, and executives – are defined as high-skilled and tend to require further education.
The results, published in Social Science Research, found ‘downward mobility’ – moving from a higher social or economic class to a lower one – is rarer than previously thought.
And Dr de Vries also thinks the upwards movement across the divide has increasingly become rarer in the last 70 years.
‘There was a period in the mid 20th century when there was a big expansion of professional jobs, and hence room at the top,’ he told MailOnline.
‘You could have a lot of people moving up from disadvantaged backgrounds into professional jobs without people from privileged backgrounds having to move down to make space.
‘But for a long time the number of professional jobs in the economy has been basically fixed.
‘That means if you want people from less advantaged backgrounds to be able to get these jobs, there has to be some downward mobility – otherwise they will all go to people who are themselves from professional backgrounds.’
Dr de Vries said the findings are a concern because there is ‘basic matter of justice’ – simply because being from a privileged background ‘shouldn’t essentially guarantee you a good job’.
As well as revealing substantially lower rates of downward mobility from the most privileged backgrounds, the study found pronounced gender differences.
Men from advantaged backgrounds were more likely to enter highly paid roles, for example, in business or finance, whereas women from similar backgrounds were much more likely to pursue careers in teaching or creative professions.
Women from elite backgrounds frequently inherit their parents’ social status, but not their financial advantage, whereas men tend to inherit both, he added.
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