UK professionals from working-class backgrounds are paid £6,800 less on average each year than those from more affluent families, a study has found.
The class pay gap was highest in finance at £13,713, the research by the Social Mobility Commission concluded.
The medical profession saw the next highest gap at £10,218, followed by information technology at £4,736. Commission chairman Alan Milburn said the 17% average pay gap showed the UK remained a “deeply elitist” society.
The research, carried out by academics from the London School of Economics and University College London, analysed data from the UK labour force survey – a snapshot of employment in the UK with more than 90,000 respondents.
The researchers examined the average earnings of people in professional jobs from different backgrounds and found those who had come from a poorer family lost out by about £6,800 a year.
It found the gap was partly caused by differences in educational background, along with the tendency of middle-class professionals to work in bigger firms and move to London for work.
But even when professionals had the same educational attainment, role and experience, those from poorer families were paid an average of £2,242 less, the Social Mobility Commission’s study found.
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