Every country and its people are divided into several social classes or levels depending upon income, location, job, family history and other such factors. While the distinctions in class are not totally clear or divided by any legal entity but there still exists a difference in the way they live, conduct themselves and spend money.
In Australia, there are five main social classes and they are established working class, established middle class, mobile middle class, emerging affluent class and established affluent class. If you wish to know more about the social hierarchy in the country, you can go through the following given information.
Established Affluent Class
At the top of the social hierarchy in Australia is the class or level known as the established affluent class. This particular class resembles an older generation of newly emerging Australians who are rich and affluent. The household incomes of people in this class is very high and they usually have diverse and large social networks. They have above average educational qualifications and both the partners or parents have high prestige occupations.
Emerging affluent class
This is the second level class in the Australian social hierarchy and is one which consists of those Australians who have turned the benefits of education into high household incomes. This class is the youngest of all the five social classes and they have high social and cultural capital. The members of this class may not have high savings but have high prestige occupations. They work hard towards their education and as a result get into good educational institutions which further guarantees good jobs and business occupations.
Mobile middle class
The third social class is the mobile middle class. The people within this class come from middle class family backgrounds but usually have good educational qualifications in Australia since parents make it a point to get their children good education so that they can go ahead and earn well in life. The household income is hence higher than the other two classes given below and even the property assets and social capital are high.
Established middle class
People belonging to the established middle class usually earn close to the average household incomes and possess close to average social and cultural capital. These people too come from middle class family history and backgrounds and usually follow on their parents footsteps in the future as far as saving, earning and spending habits are concerned. These individuals may not own property wealth and usually rent houses to live in.
Established working class
This is the lowest class in the social structure of people in Australia. These individuals have the lowest household incomes and also the lowest rates of cultural and social capital. Both these people as well as their parents have low occupational prestige which means that they don’t really take up reputed or sought after jobs. They have the highest mean age of all the classes in Australian social hierarchy. These individuals include low skilled manual labourers, medical specialists, clerks and others.