Social Inequality

Social Class

Social class is a key component of social inequality in society. Class, or socioeconomic status, refers to the ability of one group to access resources and influence other people in relation to other groups. Social class determines an individual's life chances: whether one lives a comfortable and privileged life and has access to educational and economic opportunities. Even life expectancy is tied to social class. It is a group that is not merely based on income or wealth (though this is a strong component of class and power), but also on occupational prestige, educational level, and cultural aspects (such as language, personal appearance, and food). Although class consciousness has not been especially strong in the United States recently (most U.S. residents state that they are “middle class,” whether this is reality or not), the social class of the individual at the time of birth continues to be a huge determinant of later privileges and opportunities. U.S. residents generally remain in the same social class as their parents, despite the supposedly fluid class system that is central to the so-called American Dream. Actually, evidence shows increasing class slippage, with a significant number of people doing worse economically than the generation before them.

[Page 1252]Growing class inequality in the United States (as well as global inequality) has been a large concern of both scholars and journalists in this era of U.S. politics. Many trends since the 1970s indicate that the growing gap between the poorest and the wealthiest U.S. residents will continue to grow. Between 1979 and 2003, people in the bottom 20% of family income in the United States had their real incomes shrink by 2%, but people in the top 20% of family income had their incomes grow by 51%. Looking at the top 1% of earners, the growth in family income jumps to more than 75%.

Another illustration of this trend is visible in the disparity in wages between the chief executives of major corporations and the employees they oversee. There has always been a gap between what the average CEO of a top U.S. corporation was paid and what an average worker was paid; however, that gap has grown into a huge chasm. In 1980, the average CEO/worker pay gap was 42 (where the CEO is paid as much as 42 workers), but in 1995, the gap rose to 141, and in 2000, it reached an all time high of 531. We have seen this gap lessen in 2003 (with the average CEO being paid only 301 times the amount of the average worker), but this decline had more to do with a stock market dip, rather than a reining in of the top executives' inflated wages, stock options, and bonuses.

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