The chancellor in his opinion assumed that both economists based their figures on the earning background of the [sic] Cheryl May.
Karl Steven Forister, who lives with his wife, Phyllis, in Renton, Wash., just south of Seattle, said that between their two Social Security checks, which total $3,000 a month, and extra money they earn doing background checks from their computer at home, they get by.
"That sounds a lot to a lot of people earning less than that but the vast majority of people from a business or professional background earn far, far more than that".
Students from poorer backgrounds earn considerably less than their peers from richer backgrounds.
The table below sets out elite salaries according to family background - and shows that for these occupations, those who come from senior manager backgrounds earn more than those whose parents were manual workers.
Among the best-paid jobs, those who come from privileged backgrounds earn substantially more than those who have the same jobs, but do not come from a privileged background.
Lawyers from the most advantaged backgrounds earn more than £86k, 31% more than the average £65k earned by those from manual backgrounds.
Lawyers, doctors and other professionals from working-class backgrounds earn an average of £6,800 less than colleagues raised in middle-class families, a study has found.
Chetty's research uses very large data sets such as census data to track what children from different financial backgrounds earn in adulthood.
Chief executives from senior management backgrounds have an average household income of well over £100k, whereas those in the same jobs from other backgrounds earn on average less than £90k.
In light of yet another dispiriting social mobility survey – this one from the Institute of Fiscal Studies, Cambridge, and Harvard, which found that graduates from poorer backgrounds earn less than richer peers on the same course – you'd have to throw some contortionist intellectual shapes to make the argument.
