ABSTRACT
In the Federal Republic of Germany, by contrast, there are comparatively few empirical sociological studies of the relationship between class position and social inequality. The descriptions of effects concentrate on education and work experience as income determinants within given class positions. The differential access of different groups to transfer payments creates another important dimension of social inequality, which may analytically be independent of class position in the employment system, but is closely linked to it in social life. Studies of social inequality based on the results of status attainment research and human capital research have clearly profited from recent suggestions coming once more from Marxist authors. Erik Olin Wright inaugurated a new tradition of empirical sociological research on class and social inequality in the United States. The multiple classification analysis model introduced sex as another important determinant of income chances.
