Social Class Key studies and statistics

The Hope Goldthorpe classification 1980

there is three different classes called service class intermediate class and working class. The service class includes high professionals and lower professionals the intermediate class consists of routine non-manual workers, self-employed artists and lower grade technicians or supervisors of manual workers. Lastly the working class includes skilled manual workers and unskilled manual workers.

The Hope-Goldthorpe classification criticisms

• Based on male occupations

• Jobs have different ranks

• Doesn’t take into account long-term unemployed/part-time work

NS-SEC

The UK‘s occupation based classification system used to measure position of adult population. It has eight different tiers. However it doesn’t take into account stay at home work or people who don’t have to work as well as creative industry being difficult to rank.

Social class and education statistic

Only 7% of school population is privately educated however a third of MPs are privately educated (sutton trust 2015)

Social class and education study

Department of children schools and families in 2009 found that material and deprivation of 10 go hand in hand with poor children as they may like books and educational toys in their home or have poor diets causing ill health because of low income but they are less likely to have less educated parents who are less likely to know how to stimulate their intellectual children or to have high aspirations for their children.

Social class and education calendar and Jackson 2005

They carried out a survey of nearly 2000 respective higher education students and found evidence that debt of version exists because of requiring a student loan was discouraging some students from a lower class background from applying to university.

How does social class and education impact life chances?

That’s my impact life chances because if people don’t have a good enough education therefore they would not be able to get a good job as compared to someone with a high education.

Health and social class statistic

Death from heart disease and lung cancer are twice as high in people from manual labour backgrounds as non-manual labour backgrounds (ONS)

Health and social class Dobson 1994

She found that working class mothers were reluctant to experiment with healthy foods because they do not want to risk wasting money on foods. They knew their children might not want to eat. They bought unhealthy foods knowing their children would rather eat those therefore their decision was rational based on their economic circumstance.

What is the impact of health in social class?

Social inequalities within health may impact on life chances because living in poverty affects housing for example living in damp mouldy Holmes causes illness. Furthermore, having unhealthy diet can begin disease and reduce energy levels which can make them unable to work.

Wilkinson and Pickett 2009

They carried out analysis comparing the effects of inequality in a range of societies. They found that there is a clear correlation between high levels of inequality and high levels of social problems and health problems. The UK has high levels of income and quality and has a relatively bad social and health problems.

Social class and crime statistic

Prisoners are more likely to have grown-up in care, poverty and to have had a family member convicted of a criminal offense ( social exclusion unit 2002 )

Social class and crime William Chambliss 1973

He studied two high school gangs in the USA the Saints who are from high social class for example they dress smart and use smart language and the roughness you were working class dress coffee and spoke in slang. Both groups committed similar crimes but the rough neck got into trouble with the police where the seats were able to talk their way out of it. Chambliss concluded that the law is enforced differently depending on social class.

Social class and crime impact on life chances

The impact of crime is that they are less likely to do well in school and if you have a criminal record it is much harder to get a job and gain the same status and position of society as someone without a criminal record.

Social class in work and unemployment statistic

The UK manufacturing industry collapse between 1979 and 2013 with 60% of all manufacturing jobs disappearing.

Social class in work and inequality Goldthorpe and Lockwood 1961

In the study they found that the working class are less likely to gain satisfaction and status from their jobs seeing as it is a means to an end. The days of unity were in traditional working class jobs for example steel walrus are gone and this means they faced the disadvantages in comparison to the middle class.

Social class in work and employment impact

Negative effects for the local communities because of loss of jobs, lots of secure community and lives, poverty, less economic development.

Zero hour contract statistic

A chief executive pay is 145 times the average pay of their employees and 162 times the average wage.

Zero hour contracts Garrod 2016

He found that zero our contracts are disproportionately used for working class jobs, they benefit employers more than employees, it creates economic insecurity, making it difficult for workers to plan finances or family life, limits workers ability to challenge poor condition due to fear of losing hours.

Zero hour contracts impact

Zero our contracts reinforce class inequality as middle and upper class workers are more likely to have permanent, salaried employment.

Income inequality Roberts 2011

He argues that company executives and senior management often fix their own salaries and they frequently supplement pay with bonuses to the selves and even though performance is poor pay increases are often awarded therefore lower a middle class workers do not have control over pay or decisions so work is largely driven by power and control rather than merit or skill.

Income inequality impact

Income inequality created as those at the top use their power to reward themselves while ordinary workers have limited influence over their earnings therefore upper class keep money and power for themselves while working class struggle.