Abstract: Why does or why should any one person earn eight times as much as another? The economist's answer relies mainly on supply and demand in the labour market, but the sociologist finds more significance in the differentiation of the labour force by class, status, and power, and in his or her view, there is a much greater possibility of reducing inequality than in the view of the economist. The aim of this book is to examine both these ways of accounting for the inequality of pay, not at an abstract level but in the light of a wide and detailed study of the evidence. What can we learn, for instance, by comparing the pay structures of different countries, including those of the Soviet economies, China, and the West? How can we account for the general agreement between rank order in the pay structure and the social hierarchy? The study of such questions focuses attention on the factors that differentiate the individual's capacity to earn, and especially the way in which social and economic differentiation is transmitted through the family, both genetically and by early upbringing. The forces moulding personal development are built into a theory to account for the remarkable properties of the distribution of individual earnings. The insights gained into the sources of the inequality of pay in these ways are used finally to assess the possibilities of achieving a more equal society. In relating a mass of empirical evidence from a wide range of countries to economic, sociological, and psychological theory, the author has produced a comprehensive and thought-provoking examination of the question of relativities in pay––a question that continues to present itself more and more acutely to governments, employers, and employees.

Keywords: capacity to earn, class, economic theory, equality, family effects, inequality, labour, power, psychological theory, social hierarchy, status, supply and demand