Exploring Diversity: Economic Class

Socioeconomic class has long been a predictor in American society of how successful a person will become in life. During the post-World War II era, many Americans experienced upward mobility; however, salaries began to stagnate within a few decades and generations after the Boomers tend to remain in the same economic class into which they were born.

While it may be difficult to separate economic class from other social factors, such as race or immigrant status, classism results when employees or customers are not treated, or perceive that they are not treated, in the same ways as others from more prosperous financial backgrounds. We tend to think of education as a means of equalizing class backgrounds, but students from poor and/or working-class backgrounds have reported how incongruous their college experience, especially at more elite schools, is compared to their childhood environments. “Class migrants,” or people who have changed socioeconomic class, face unique challenges in the work place:

• People from working-class backgrounds do not have the same networks and thus the same opportunities for internships in college or connections for jobs post-secondary education.
• Class migrants do not know the unwritten rules of their new economic class; this can be a detriment in the areas of communication styles, self-promotion, finding sponsors and mentors, and even professional etiquette.
• While employees from working-class backgrounds tend to have a lot of ambition, they don’t necessarily understand how to navigate corporate promotion systems, especially if those systems are not transparent, and seek out opportunities for professional development.
• Class migrants may also experience feelings of alienation from their families and friends who do not change social classes alongside them.
• Class migrants tend to be viewed, inaccurately, by their co-workers as less competent or committed to the job than employees from economically privileged class backgrounds; rather, employees from working-class backgrounds may feel a stronger sense of commitment to their families or communities than their employer.
• Class migrants who do not feel included in their work environment may choose to keep quiet about their poor or working-class background, called “covering.”
• Customers from working-class backgrounds who feel that an organization doesn’t value their business will take that business elsewhere.

In reality, class migrants bring rich talent and skills to the workplace. Because of a variety of hardships they may have faced growing up, class migrants have a propensity to develop grit and resilience. In a study of military leaders, those from working-class backgrounds were viewed as better leaders because they were less narcissistic than similar personnel from economically advantaged backgrounds. Employees from working-class backgrounds don’t exercise a sense of entitlement as frequently as their peers from more economically privileged classes. Class migrants tend to demonstrate better judgment for risk-taking, take a common-sense approach to problem-solving, and are better team players.

To foster an inclusive workplace that is mindful of socioeconomic class and overcome the challenges that make class migrants feel uncomfortable and less included, try these leading practices:

• Make work/life balance a priority for everyone; refrain from scheduling social activities outside of working hours that would interfere with family or community commitments.
• Realize that sports like golf, squash, lacrosse, and crew are more accessible to people from economically advantaged backgrounds and may not present optimal team-building activities.
• Offer guidance for effective self-promotion, especially if performance evaluations include a self-evaluation section.
• Value teamwork over individual contributions and jettison any unwritten requirement for “face-time” or other displays that lack substance.
• Hire graduates from public universities and community colleges, not only elite private schools or research institutions. Class migrants may have gone to the college they could afford, not the best one they were admitted to.

Hire for “culture add” rather than “culture fit”: culture fit leads to homogeneity while culture add, including class differences, boosts innovation, creativity, and problem-solving.
Class migrants contribute a lot to diversity in the workplace, especially if they feel included as their authentic selves. Their backgrounds add to the variety of perspectives and mindsets that every organization needs to continue to improve.

About Naomi

Naomi Mercer (she, her) is senior vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at ABA. She recently transitioned from a 25-year military career where she served as an assistant professor in the Department of English and Philosophy at the United States Military Academy and in the Pentagon running the Army’s gender integration and religious accommodation programs. Her educational background includes a doctorate in literary studies with a minor in gender and women’s studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an executive certificate in strategic diversity and inclusion from Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership. She is the author of the academic monograph, Toward Utopia (2015).