A study by the Social Mobility Foundation has found that working-class British employees in professional roles face a 12% salary penalty compared to their more privileged peers in the same occupation, amounting to an annual loss of £6,291.
This disparity effectively means that from 17 November each year, professionals from working-class backgrounds work for free.
The class pay gap is even more pronounced for women, with professional women from working-class backgrounds facing a gap of over £7,000 annually compared to their counterparts from more affluent backgrounds.
“Some groups face an additional disadvantage due to their ethnic background as well as their class,” the report stated.
The largest pay gap within an ethnic group is between white workers from a working-class background and those from a professional-managerial origin, where the gap is as wide as £6,454.
Working-class Black Caribbeans earn £3,935 less on average and Black Africans £2,797 less, according to the research.
The pay gap is least pronounced in the Chinese community, where working-class professionals earn £921 less than their more affluent counterparts on average.
The gap also varies regionally, with Northern Ireland experiencing the largest class pay gap, followed by Wales, Southern and Eastern England, London, and the North.
The private sector, employing 82% of the UK's workforce, shows a larger class pay gap than other sectors, with working-class professionals earning £7,575 less annually than their peers from professional-managerial backgrounds.
Alan Milburn, chair of the Social Mobility Foundation, called the class pay gap a “shameful secret”.
“Over recent years there has been a welcome focus on tackling racial inequality and gender pay gaps. But diversity efforts are flawed if socioeconomic background is not included,” he stated. “These aren’t either/or issues; they complement each other. Inequality based on social class has to be as much a focus as other diversity concerns.”