Inequality in Job Quality

Abstract

Abstract The issue of inequalities in job quality, and their trends over time, has been at the centre of theory and research in the sociology of work since its inception. In the first three decades of the post-war period the focus was primarily upon class inequality. In more recent decades, inequalities of gender and contract type have also become central concerns. It is notable that there have been marked differences in trends with respect to different types of disadvantaged employees. Women have improved not only their employment rates but also their level of access to higher-skilled jobs and their relative earnings, although they are still at a relative (albeit declining) disadvantage in terms of pay and entry into the highest-level jobs. In contrast, inequalities with respect to class and contract have been either stable or increasing. Class differences in earnings have diverged in recent decades, as have differences of skill and opportunities for skill development, while differentials in job control have been either stable or have increased. The job quality disadvantages of temporary work have been mainly stable, even with respect to job insecurity, but transition rates into permanent employment have been deteriorating.