2025/06/14 by Mark Williams, Jonny Gifford, Maria Koumenta · 1 voice
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Employment and Welfare Studies #Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies #Social Policy and Reform Studies
paper · doi:10.1177/00380385251339592
openalex publication_date 2025/06/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Building on research establishing social class origin pay gaps within higher managerial and professional occupations, using a national survey of 3336 higher managerial and professional workers in the United Kingdom, this article documents social class origin gaps in an index of non-pay aspects of job quality. This study finds that those from lower social class origins have a greater propensity to cluster within those higher managerial and professional occupations that generally have higher job quality but are lower paying. However, they have lower job quality than their higher social class origin counterparts through occupying lower quality jobs within occupations. None of the penalty associated with lower social class origins can be accounted for by a rich set of observed factors. Given the centrality of job quality to health and wellbeing, we conclude job quality must factor into research and debates concerning the long shadow of socio-economic background on life chances.