Social class

Question 1

Income

Answer 1

1.Functionalist and New Right say unequal rewards are beneficial for society to ensure the most talented are encouraged to work hard and use their abilities. They say this justifies higher salaries and bonuses for highly skilled jobs.
2.Marxist and Weberian perspectives believe that company owners and managers choose their own salary and it is this power they have which allows them to create a culture where huge rewards for certain people become the norm. Ordinary workers are socialised to just accept their wages as they have no other option.
3.The poorest fifth of the population paid 37.4% tax and the rich paid 35.1%.

Question 2

Wealth

Answer 2

1.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) defines wealth as:
Property wealth- such as housing and land
Physical wealth- such as valuable assests (cars, jewellery, paintings, antiques)
Financial wealth- such as money in bank accounts, savings and investments
Private pension wealth- whatever someone earned throughout their life
2.The annual Sunday Times Rich List suggested that the richest 200 families had between them total wealth averaging £225 billion
3.The poorest 50% of the population have only 10% of wealth between them
4.Atkinson 2013 found that a lot of income now comes from inherited wealth

Question 3

Work/employment

Answer 3

1.Weberian sociologists believe more privileged workers tend to be in more skilled/high-status occupations that can choose higher pay and other rewards. Workers who are less skilled do not have this bargain power.
2.Marxist sociologists believe that inequalities come from employers who keep wages down and profits up
3.While the Child Poverty Action Group argues that there are over 3.5 million children in poverty today
4.Mack and Lansley (1985) measured poverty by asking different groups what they regarded ‘necessities’ in their lives. Items rated by 50% or more of people were seen as necessities. They then asked how many people had to go without these necessities because they could not afford them. Households that lacked three or more necessities were counted as poor and those that went without five or more were defined as in severe poverty.
5.A study carried out in 2012 shows poverty has increased, with 33% of households were seen as suffering compared to 14% in 1983.

Question 4

Social mobility

Answer 4

Intergenerational mobility- between generations (your dad being a factory worker but you become a doctor)
Intragenerational mobility- movement between social class doing their working life (being a secretary at a company and working your way up to running the place)
1.Goldthorpe did a study in 1972 which sampled 10,000 men. He found that after WW2 there had been lots of upward social mobility. He found there were now fewer manual jobs than before so men moved up social classes as there was more opportunity!
2.Savage and Egerton did a more recent study which included women. These results were put with Goldthorpe’s and the results showed:
The working class continued to get smaller and intermediate class got bigger, giving more opportunity to working class.
However 55% of men who originated from working class stayed there.
Women from working class were more likely to move up compared to men.
If you were born into the intermediate class, you were twice as likely to end up there.