Gender and racial pay penalties are well-known: women (of all races) and people of color (of all genders) earn less, on average, even when they gain access to occupations historically reserved for White men. Studies of social mobility show that people from working-class backgrounds in the US have also been excluded from top professional and managerial occupations. But do working-class-origin people who attain top US jobs face a class-origin pay penalty? Despite evidence of class-origin pay gaps in higher professional and managerial occupations elsewhere, we might expect that the central role of race and racism in US stratification processes, along with the relatively low salience of class identities, would render class origins irrelevant to earnings in exclusive occupations, at least within racial groups. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to link childhood class position to adult occupation and earnings, we describe the racial and class-origin composition of different high-status occupations and the earnings of people within them. We show that when people who are from working-class backgrounds are upwardly mobile into high-status occupations, they earn almost $20,000 per year less, on average, than individuals who are themselves from privileged backgrounds. The difference is partly explained by the upwardly mobile being less likely to have college degrees, but it remains substantial (around $11,700) even after accounting for education, race and other important predictors of earnings. The gap is largest among White people; there is a class-origin penalty in top US occupations that is distinct from the racial pay gap.

中文翻译：

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美国的阶层上限：高级专业和管理职业中的阶层薪酬处罚

性别和种族薪酬处罚是众所周知的：女性（所有种族）和有色人种（所有性别）的平均收入较低，即使她们获得了历史上为白人男性保留的职业。社会流动性研究表明，美国工人阶级背景的人也被排除在顶级专业和管理职业之外。但是，获得美国高层职位的工人阶级出身的人是否会面临阶级出身的薪酬惩罚？尽管有证据表明其他地方的高级专业和管理职业存在阶级出身薪酬差距，但我们可以预期，种族和种族主义在美国分层过程中的核心作用，以及阶级身份的相对较低的显着性，将使阶级出身与收入无关。排他性职业，至少在种族群体内。利用收入动态小组研究将儿童阶级地位与成人职业和收入联系起来，我们描述了不同高地位职业的种族和阶级起源构成以及其中人员的收入。我们发现，当来自工人阶级背景的人向上流动到高地位的职业时，他们的平均年收入比来自特权背景的人少近 20,000 美元。造成这种差异的部分原因是，向上流动的人拥有大学学位的可能性较小，但即使考虑到教育、种族和其他重要的收入预测因素，这一差异仍然很大（约 11,700 美元）。白人之间的差距最大；美国顶级职业存在阶级出身惩罚，这与种族薪酬差距不同。