The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged

383 Pages·2019·9.918 MB·English

by  Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison

THE CLASS CEILING
Why it Pays to be Privileged
Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison
First published in Great Britain in 2019 by
Policy Press North America office:
University of Bristol Policy Press
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© Policy Press 2019
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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A catalog record for this book has been requested.
ISBN 978-1-4473-3606-8 hardcover
ISBN 978-1-4473-3608-2 ePub
ISBN 978-1-4473-3609-9 Mobi
ISBN 978-1-4473-3607-5 ePdf
The right of Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison to be identified as authors of this
work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
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The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the
authors and not of the University of Bristol or Policy Press. The University of Bristol
and Policy Press disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting
from any material published in this publication.
Policy Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race, disability,
age and sexuality.
Cover design by Lyn Davies
Front cover image: Martin Parr, Cartier Polo. 1998. G.B England. Ascot. 1998,
Magnum Photos.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International,
Padstow
Policy Press uses environmentally responsible print
partners
For our daughters, Cora, Skye, Ingrid and Freja
The cover photograph of this book was taken by
Martin Parr at Ascot racecourse in 1998. One
of Britain’s most renowned photographers, and
certainly the most celebrated chronicler of the class
system, Parr took this photo while working on a
wider essay which gloriously visualised the symbols
of class identity and class division at the turn of the
21st century.
Contents
List of figures and tables vii
Acknowledgements ix
Note on language usage xiii
Introduction 1
one Getting in 29
two Getting on 45
three Untangling the class pay gap 57
four Inside elite firms 71
five The Bank of Mum and Dad 87
six A helping hand 109
seven Fitting in 123
eight View from the top 145
nine Self-elimination 171
ten Class ceilings: A new approach to social mobility 185
eleven Conclusion 209
Epilogue: 10 ways to break the class ceiling 229
With Nik Miller, Chief Executive, The Bridge Group
Methodological appendix 239
Notes 285
References 321
Index 359

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List of figures and tables
Figures
0.1 Flows from origins to destinations in the UK 12
1.1 How we measure social mobility into elite occupations 30
1.2 The privileged dominate the UK’s elite occupations 31
1.3 Some elite occupations are a lot more closed than others 33
1.4 The children of doctors become doctors (a lot!) 35
1.5 Class matters for who gets a degree 36
1.6 Even when working-class students outperform the privileged, 39
they are less likely to get top jobs
1.7 Many racial-ethnic groups are under-represented in many 41
top fields
1.8 Women are also under-represented in most top jobs 42
1.9 The privileged are more likely to get into top jobs in every 43
racial-ethnic group
2.1 The class pay gap 48
2.2 The gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps in elite 49
occupations
2.3 Socially mobile women face a double disadvantage in earnings 50
2.4 Many socially mobile racial-ethnic minorities also face a 52
double disadvantage
2.5 The class pay gap is biggest in law, medicine and finance 53
3.1 The class pay gap is even larger after accounting for 60
demographics
3.2 Those from working-class backgrounds earn less even when 63
they go to top universities
3.3 Differences in educational attainment account for about 64
half the class pay gap
3.4 Other measures of ‘merit’ do little to account for the class 65
pay gap
3.5 Regional differences in pay also contribute to the class 67
pay gap

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The Class Ceiling
3.6 The privileged also sort into higher-paying occupations 68
and bigger firms
3.7 The drivers of the class pay gap – what advantages 70
the privileged?
4.1 6TV is much more socially exclusive than film and 74
television nationally
4.2 Commissioning is the ‘poshest’ department at 6TV 75
4.3 The class ceiling at 6TV 76
4.4 The privately educated are highly over-represented at 78
Turner Clarke
4.5 Advisory is the most exclusive area of Turner Clarke 79
4.6 The class ceiling at Turner Clarke 80
4.7 Staff at Coopers are unusually privileged 82
4.8 There is no class ceiling at Coopers 83
4.9 Actors are disproportionately from privileged backgrounds 84
4.10 The drivers of the class pay gap – what advantages 86
the privileged?
11.1 All drivers of the class ceiling – what advantages 217
the privileged?
A.1 Earnings mountain – explaining regression 279
A.2 Percentage of each racial-ethnic group from each class 279
origin, whole UK labour force
A.3 Percentage with a BA or more from each racial-ethnic group 280
and class origin
A.4 Percentage of people from each racial-ethnic group and 281
class origin in top jobs, among those with a BA or higher
A.5 Earnings by class origin and educational attainment 282
A.6 Class pay gaps within education levels 282
A.7 Class pay gaps for each racial-ethnic group and 283
class background
Tables
A.1a 6TV interviewees 248
A.1b Turner Clarke interviewees 252
A.1c Actors interviewees 255
A.1d Coopers interviewees 258
A.2 Number of LFS respondents in each elite occupation by origin 264
A.3 Origins and destinations in the LFS (%) 278

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Acknowledgements
Although there are only two names on the front of this book,
a number of people have made important contributions to the
wider project that the book emerges from. First and foremost,
we would like to record our debt to our Research Assistant,
Ian McDonald, who carried out the majority of the fieldwork
at Coopers, our architecture case study firm. Ian recruited the
firm, conducted the fieldwork and analysed the data in just six
months. The insight this research generated has proven invaluable
to the project. Ian was also a crucial source of general intellectual
support, feeding into the writing and editing of large portions
of the book, even when not being paid to do so.
We would also like to thank other important collaborators,
including Dave O’Brien who carried out a large number of
our interviews with actors, and Kenton Lewis who conducted
several interviews at Turner Clarke. These individuals helped
not only in the collection of data but have been pivotal in
the formation and development of many of the key ideas and
arguments expressed in this book.
Bringing together our fieldwork and quantitative analyses to
actually write this book has been a long, sometimes torturous,
frequently revelatory, and overall thoroughly all-consuming
process. In doing so we have been very lucky to be able to
call upon the support of many academic colleagues. We would
particularly like to thank Mike Savage, who has provided
outstanding mentorship and invaluable feedback throughout,
including much-needed encouragement when the project was
in its infancy. Jouni Kuha, Mike Hout, Lindsey Macmillan
and Aaron Reeves have, at various times, provided essential
guidance for our quantitative analysis and, similarly, our case
study fieldwork would not have been possible without the help of
Oona King, Scarlett Brown, Pascale Waltho and Ade Rawcliffe.

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