Social Class, Work-Related Incomes, and Socio-Economic Polarization in Europe, 2005-2014

Sociologists and economists have typically focused on different dimensions of socio-economic inequalities. Sociologists have been mainly concerned with occupational and educational indicators, whereas economists have focused on the earnings, income, and wealth distribution. The article integrates sociological and economics' approaches to the study of socio-economic inequalities, by providing an analysis of the relationship between social class and work-related income, and its distribution, in Europe in the period between 2005 and 2014. Europe as a whole and its eight major countries are studied with the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-Silc) data. Changes in the income hierarchy among classes are discussed in the framework of the occupational upgrading and polarization hypotheses. The results of our analyses suggest that, first, the capacity of the concept of social class to describe and summarize the different distribution of individual market-related income is stable or increasing in Europe. Second, in the 10 years considered there has been a 'fanning out' of the class income hierarchy. With reference to upper social class, the increase in the income gap has been stronger for the self-employed and the routine workers. Finally, there is also evidence of a mix of occupational upgrading and polarization. The empirical results, in particular, are consistent with the predictions of the skill-biased technological change hypothesis.