Apparently we now have social immobility - how do you compare to your parents?

[Hulababy]

According to a programme on TV people don't tend to move out of the social classes/salary and occupation levels of their parnts at the moment.

It stated that most 30 somethings are in the same category as their parents were at that age, earning similar salary levels (taking into account inflation).

What do you think? Is this true of MNetters for example.

We are certainly more comfortable than both set of parents.

Me

Income - My part-time income is higher than both of my parents full time income put together
Education - both parents left school at around 10yo (Jamaica) - me PhD
Employment - father worked in factory doing manual work , mother auxillary nurse - me senior research scientist
Standard of living - parents bought their house in the 1960s after renting one room for several years. West Indians tended to buy their houses because they had difficulty getting decent rented accommodation. House had no heating and they bought carpets about 10 years after moving in. We never went on holiday.

DH

Income - DH High income and rising - earns 3xtimes father's current salary
Education - both left school at 14yo - DH PhD & MBA
Employment - father is an engineer, mother factory worker, but at my DH's age, father was manual worker in factory and studied to get HND - DH is senior manager

Standard of living - parents always owned their own house but have only been able to modernise it in the last 5 years. We have much higher standard of living than they did in their 30s.

Such an interesting topic - I've been thinking about this (independently - didn't see the TV thing) a lot recently. To copy OrmI's schematic:

Income: we earn far more in numbers - but can only afford on two salaries what they managed on one
Education: parents & we all have post-grad qualif's - we are more commercial than they, though - they were academic/public sector, we are business/law
Employment: difference is that I work full-time, neither of dh's or my mother did. Also different segments - see above
Standard of living: poss. slightly higher, but that's because dh & I want pictures & posh holidays, where our parents were not so bothered (or did not have such easy access) - my parents in particular are rather "anti-consumer"

The thing I was thinking about, which is possibly relevant only to exactly my born-in-the-60s generation, is how firmly settled in life my parents were by our age (mid-40s) - stable careers, formalised progression, secure retirement expectations - compared to us. Our careers got going about 10 years later than theirs did, & though still fairly steady need constant review & revision to keep on track. (Though that may just be the difference between the commercial world & academia/public sector.)

I think about it because of course I wonder what the children's career plans should be. Dh & I were not discouraged from faffing about (with post-grady stuff, nothing actually wasteful) through our 20s - and I am not sure at all I would support that for ds & dd.

Bink, you are right, our parents' generation were much more settled. My father had a job for life - any form of management these days is much less secure.

I am better off than my parents, but my mother is szichophrenic and father not in my life but not much different, so really, tis not hard!

I was however bought up by my aunt and uncle and he was a carpenter, she a SAHM.

PIL's - FIL a bricklayer, MIL a SAHM

us - DH a bricklayer, me a SAHM

Identical lives, altho we have more children so less actual spare cash.

we are however better off on some ways, as we have the ability to borrow on credit etc, whereas our parents generation saved up for what they wanted, and only had the cash they earnt to 'play with', so to speak.

I'm rather older than that and DH and I went to university whereas our parents left school with A Levels (desperate shortage of university places and no funding in those days). DS1 now at university DS2 will go in two years. As far as income is concerned we are a little better off than our parents but will not benefit from such good pensions and could probably not afford the houses (at the prices they are now) that they owned when we were teenagers despite both working in graduate professional jobs.

worse off than my parents

We're better off than either set of parents. With the exception of my father (who was a teacher and went to college), our parents have no qualifications above O Level. My husband and I are both educated to postgraduate level. I haven't worked since I got married but had a decent job before that and we live in a comfortable house in a nice area - better than our parents could afford at our age (we're in our early thirties).

As to earnings, my husband earns just under three times what my father and his father earned and his earnings rise every year. He has an excellent pension (Armed Forces) and good promotion prospects (he's an officer) so our finiancial position will likely improve over time.

We are both better qualified than our parents and live in a smaller house than either of us did as children. I could not afford to live in the house I grew up in.

I think that's a big generational difference, Eliza - no way I can ever expect to live in the sort of house I grew up in. Unless my MIL avoids going into a care home, I suppose! And my parents weren't noticeably better off than everyone else - both managers in the public sector like thousands of other people.

Like mine, Edam. That's house prices for you, I suppose.

Not the case for me... Have qualifications, "professional" job, own home and a totally different lifestyle to my parents (particularly my mum and step dad)

They are/were both manual workers, lived in a council house, smoked, go to bingo and go on twice yearly holidays to Benidorm (same hotel - every year)

Definitely not true for us in terms of my parents and DP's mum. DP's dad is probably similar social class, although never earned close to our salaries.

How do you work out social class?

My parents started from "working" class backgrounds but were both the first in their families to go to university. They were a computer consultant - later maths and computing lecturer - and a secondary school teacher, and they had a nice semi in the suburbs by the time I was born. So, very m-c.

We have more in the way of "goods" than they ever did - as my mother never stops reminding me - but we take fewer holidays and have only one car compared with the two (at one point, three) which they had in their 40s.

They also moved, mid-40s (when i was little) to a house, a very nice house in the countr-ee, with a big garden, in Kent - these days that same house would cost £400,000+ and would be laughably out of our reach.

We do more travelling in the UK though - seeing old friends - which is necessary in order to see them as they are scattered across the country. My mother does not get this and doesn't understand why we dont just "stay friends with people round the corner."

Income: we earn far more in numbers
Education: my parents both worked in industry (mum in office) although step-mum is a graduate with a job in social services. DP's mum went to uni but didn't graduate, DP's dad and step-mum both went to uni and were both teachers for a while
Employment: we both work full time. My dad works full time and step-mum part time. DP's dad is retired, step-mum works full time and DP's mum hasn't worked for years (disability/illness). I'm in financial services and DP works for a wine company
Standard of living: higher than my family. Slightly higher than DP's dad's side and eaons higher than DP's mum, who as survived on benefits and handouts from us for years. Our cost of living ismuch higher though as we are in London and our families are in the North.