The Class Structure of Job Rewards

Abstract

This research used canonical correlation to analyze how 20 occupational rewards are linked to the principal class divisions in the United States. Authority, ownership, mental labor, white-collar work, and embourgeoisement divisions are tested with the continuous status socioeconomic index (SEI). A wide variety of job rewards are investigated as possible consequences of class divisions: earnings, fringe benefits, promotions, security, challenging work, autonomy, safety, comfort, and sociability. Two distinct dimensions of job rewards emerge from the analysis. The first factor focuses on earnings, autonomy, and challenging work. These rewards are determined by no single class division but by a combination of Poulantzas's three dimensions of the social relations of production—ownership, authority, and mental labor—together with the status scale. A second, independent, factor of comfortable working conditions is related to white-collar work, higher-status occupations, women's jobs, and organizational context.