Socioeconomic status across the career life cycle: A review and research agenda

Abstract

Socioeconomic status (SES) exerts a substantial yet underexamined influence on employees' experiences in organizations. Positioning SES as a core dimension of diversity, equity, and inclusion, our review examines how SES shapes workers' experiences and identities across the career life cycle, while considering how future‐of‐work developments may alter these processes. We synthesized empirical studies on SES in the workplace and organized findings along a three‐stage career life cycle: “getting in” (selection and hiring); “navigating” (on‐the‐job experiences); and “moving up, out, and on” (career progression and social mobility). Our review shows that SES shapes organizational life through recurring mechanisms that accumulate across career stages. During entry, SES‐related credentials, networks, and other resources can function as proxies for merit and fit. After entry, low‐SES employees often face a “navigation tax”: the additional cognitive, relational, and financial effort required to participate in workplaces organized around higher‐SES norms. Later, SES shapes whether career advancement and mobility are available through leadership pipelines, transition costs, and the uneven viability of entrepreneurship and self‐employment. We advance a mechanism‐centered research agenda that integrates SES into organizational theories and highlights implications for designing career systems that reduce the extent to which work‐related opportunities depend on socioeconomic origin.