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Paper short abstract

Elite occupations are characterised by the magnitude of income accumulation. This paper however shows that the cumulative effects on group earnings is a pattern visible across the strata of the society, for a dominant group at the expense of other racial, ethnic, and gender groups.

Paper long abstract

Elite occupations are characterised by the magnitude of income accumulation. This paper however shows that the cumulative effects on group earnings is a pattern visible across the strata of the society. The literature on identity, stratification, and intersectionality has long shown the importance of group identity in explaining the persistence of income inequality. By taking a group perspective to individuals, the contribution of this paper is to reveal that elitist earnings, whereby one group earn disproportionately at the expense of other demographic groups at the occupational level, exist across the labour force. The case studies on the US and UK labour force show that elitist earnings is a group phenomenon, not specific to elitist occupations. There is in effect a pattern of elitist earnings across occupations for a dominant group, mainly white male or female, at the expense of other racial, ethnic, and gender groups.