Consolidated trajectories? Social class and earnings growth over the life course

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• Department of Political and Social Sciences

Do individuals' earnings across the life course cluster around distinct trajectories within social classes? This question lies at the core of current sociological debates on the importance of social class for labour market rewards. Thus far, however, research focussed on group-level mean trajectories. We contend that adequate responses to this question can only emerge from modelling within-class, between-individual variation in trajectories beyond the mean. Building on employment relationship theory, we argue that social class consolidates earnings trajectories, so that trajectories are more similar within than between social classes. The extent of within-class similarity of trajectories should, however, theoretically meaningfully vary across classes based on workers’ asset specificity and monitoring difficulties. We draw on high-quality survey data from the German Socio-economic Panel and newly linked administrative records to test these predictions.