Graduates from poorer backgrounds earn half as much as privileged peers, survey shows

A survey has revealed that graduates from poorer backgrounds earn half as much as their more privileged peers in their first job after university, The Guardian reported. 

The survey of 5,000 people has said that disadvantaged graduates apply for fewer roles and they lack the family connections and financial support to hunt for top jobs. 

According to the findings, graduates whose parents held professional roles, including chief executives, doctors and teachers, earned an average of £23,457 in their first job after university, compared with just £11,595 among those whose parents held technical, manual or service jobs.

After university, poorer graduates applied for an average of six jobs compared with nine for their wealthier peers, the figures showed.

“The stark reality is where you grew up and what your parents did still has an impact on your opportunities and your earning potential,” Sarah Atkinson, the chief executive of the Social Mobility Foundation, which produced the report with TotalJobs, was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

She said wealthier graduates tended to benefit from being able to “hold out for the job and salary” they wanted, as well as having the confidence to aim higher in job applications.

Atkinson added that they are also better at negotiating over salary, and able to leverage unpaid work experience to start at a higher level.

Atkinson urged employers to target deprived areas of the country, taking into account socioeconomic circumstances in recruitment, reporting on the backgrounds of their staff and supporting disadvantaged graduates with moving to a new city.

According to her, universities should work closely with employers to level the playing field by helping disadvantaged students build their CV, find opportunities and transition to work.

The report also showed that more privileged graduates were 47 percent more likely to use family connections to find their first job. Of those who earned more than £50,000, 61 per cent said family, friends or former colleagues had helped them to secure a job, compared with just 35 per cent of people earning less than £50,000.

Privileged graduates were also more confident they would find a job they wanted (71 per cent compared with 50 per cent) and benefited from cultural advantages such as taking inspiration from their parents’ professions in their job search.

Willingness to move was also identified as a barrier in the report, with just 64 per cent of poorer graduates open to relocating compared with 76 per cent of their more privileged peers. The report suggested this could be due to anxieties about the cost of moving to and living in bigger cities.

“Young people from working-class backgrounds can find that in leaving their geographical community at home they may feel they’re leaving it behind in a more philosophical sense, which can be hard," Atkinson told The Guardian.

"They tell us they don’t belong at home anymore, but also they don’t feel they belong in a new professional environment because they’re conscious of their background and being different."