Abstract:

Graduate employment and remuneration are critical measures of educational quality and equity. Students from poor socio-economic backgrounds, even those who have studied at prestigious tertiary institutions, may perpetuate disadvantage by having lower employment expectations than students from middle-class or affluent families. Still, despite a growing focus on inequality, the effect of a student’s socioeconomic status (SES) on employment expectations has not attracted much research attention. Conducting such research in the South African context is also particularly interesting because South Africa has high unemployment and the highest Gini coefficient (indicating the unequal distribution of wealth) in the world, together with a developed corporate economy, a skills shortage, and enforced employment equity legislation.

This paper reports on the findings of an investigation concerning the relationship between students’ SES and four employment expectations:
1) earnings expectations,
2) expectations about securing employment,
3) anticipated socioeconomic status discrimination at work, and
4) willingness to settle for lower earnings.
Our quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional study with a final purposive sample of South African university students (N = 346) found that SES does not significantly predict students’ earning expectations and employment expectations but that SES significantly predicts anticipated socioeconomic status discrimination at work and a willingness to settle for lower earnings.

This study has important implications for educational advocacy work and organisational policy in pursuing fair workplaces with more inclusive policies and practices.

Keywords:

Employment expectations, socio-economic status, students.