A German study finds the new working class lacking in class consciousness yet strongly aware of social inequalities.
The fact that the world of work has changed dramatically over the past hundred years is not newsworthy. The fact that in our high-technology, knowledge society half of the working population see themselves as working class however is.
The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung commissioned an empirical study last year in which more than 5,000 people in Germany were surveyed. We accompanied this quantitative survey with focus groups, in which mainly production workers and service workers participated but also employees from socio-cultural professions, such as nurses or teachers.
Very diverse
The world of employment in Germany is very diverse. The manufacturing sector is no longer dominant, while activities that are administrative or interpersonal in nature have become widespread. Similarly, the picture of the working class has changed: whereas the ‘old working class’ consisted mainly of production workers, the working class of today includes at least service workers as well.
Our survey found that the latter were often even worse off than production workers, in terms of income and assets, so this extension of the working class makes perfect sense if one wants to capture the change that has taken place. Yet small businesses and the self-employed are also often in a worse financial situation than production workers. What they all have in common is rather low income and associated financial worries, as well as difficult working conditions.
The change in the world of work also affects gender relations. While 83 per cent of production workers are men, the opposite is true in the service sector where the proportion of women is 70 per cent.
Across the differences in income and working life, there is a fundamentally positive view of employment: two-thirds of those surveyed are satisfied with their working conditions and 85 per cent are proud of their work. The overwhelming majority enjoy going to work. But some also want more recognition for it, especially those who consider their work to be socially important.
Social belonging
Members of the contemporary working class show the highest consent to the question as to whether they feel they belong to the working class: 83 per cent of production workers and 70 per cent of service workers identify themselves as such. Yet even 41 per cent of those who work in management (such as accountants or controllers) allocate themselves to the working class. Altogether, 54 per cent of employees and former employees assign themselves to that class.
At the same time, a large majority from these occupational groups locate themselves in the middle class. The Jena sociologist Klaus Dörre roots this push from the working class into the middle class in an ‘effective staging of a social middle that makes class questions disappear’. The longing for social recognition and to belong to the middle class is deeply embedded: to be middle-class signifies a path to prosperity, acknowledgement of worth and ‘respectable’ membership of society.
And even if many employees feel they belong to the working class, this does not result in a mobilising, unifying sense of community transcending the different occupational groups. Rather, there is a longing for general recognition that one’s own work is relevant and is perceived by society as important.
The respondents in the focus groups felt they were the ones who kept the country running. They saw themselves as average consumers, in the middle of things, cogs in the machine, as if in an endless endurance race. In political discourse they would like ‘more plain language’. They saw themselves as a social majority but not as a ‘solidary we’ with a pronounced identity or sense of community—rather as those ‘who really have to work for their money and who simply don’t have much left’.
Class consciousness?
Awareness of being part of a group within the social structure, possessing a common identity, is a prerequisite for collective action. Representation of interests, for instance through trade unions, is then a consequence of this sense of community.
In the focus groups, however, a lack of solidarity within the working class or one’s own occupational group was often alluded to: ‘I don’t think solidarity really exists anymore … Yes, it’s somehow all against all. Everyone tries to just get through like that.’ This was how a 60-year-old sewage- and energy-system installer from Bochum described his impression. This perceived lack of a collective was partly traced back to mutual competition, which feeds off the replaceability of the individual employee in many sections of the working class.
Of course, class consciousness as such cannot be measured with a simple question in a questionnaire. We therefore investigated it with a consciousness index, based on the ideas of Erik Olin Wright and developed by the German Research Foundation project ‘Class Structure and Class Consciousness in the Federal Republic of Germany’.
Our results show that the occupational groups of the new working class in particular manifest high values on this index. Production workers have a high level of class consciousness at 37 per cent, as do service workers at 39 per cent. The statistics are however led by socio-cultural (semi-)professionals at 43 per cent, these being employees in the interpersonal arena such as educators, nurses and teachers. These findings fit with the perception of their own work: people who often reach the limits of their mental resilience or who consider their work to be socially relevant have a higher class consciousness.
Social inequalities
Consciousness of a common class supports collective action in pursuit of political interests. In an organised form, this is where the trade unions come into play. Although union membership in Germany as a whole has fallen by almost 50 per cent in the last 20 years, in the service union Ver.di it has risen significantly in recent years. This is consistent with the finding of higher class consciousness in the occupational classes of socio-cultural (semi-)professionals and service workers.
Although in the focus groups the role of the unions was discussed critically in some cases—there was talk, among other things, of too close proximity to politics and employers—the participants would like to see more solidarity-based and organised representation of interests. For trade unions and a political drive for this class of the ‘working middle’, this should be an incentive to win back trust in the organisations through good political work. In any case, the desire for a collective representation of interests is deeply rooted in the new working class.
Here there is often the impression that politics does not concern itself with the important things in life. ‘The sea-turtle migration is more important,’ said a warehouse employee from the Ruhr area. There is so much that needs to be done, especially to reduce social inequalities. Specifically, demands for more financial security were formulated, such as an increase in the minimum wage, better security in old age or affordable rents.
This fundamental awareness of the injustice of socio-economic realities however met a resigned acceptance of existing inequalities. A railway-electronics technician from Saxony soberly described the impossibility of changing anything in the social structure with the statement ‘whoever is born poor will also die poor—probably’.
The ‘working middle’
The feeling that, despite much arduous work, one had only just enough to avoid falling off the tightrope of life was expressed in the quotes from the focus groups as well as the figures from the survey. And the satisfaction with working life apparent in the latter quickly turned into incomprehension and differentiation if there was the impression that other groups were treated preferentially and that one’s own work was not socially recognised.
This is where politics must start if it seeks to be a ‘politics for the working middle’—not however in the form that relies on exclusion and degradation of those who cannot or can no longer work. The cheap game of pitting people with little money against people with even less money is not only insensitive and serves populist-right rhetoric; it also does not solve the problem of social inequality.
The concept of the ‘working middle’ actually fits the state of working society in Germany well: on the one hand, an overwhelming majority sees itself in the centre of the social hierasrchy; on the other hand, work continues to play a central role in identity. The term ‘working class’ may seem antiquated and outdated to many, but many still feel bound to it—whether out of tradition, pride or simply the feeling of commitment to work and life and a striving for advancement.
‘The middle’ and ‘work’ both have positive connotations as places of identity and they also have a connecting element, the feeling of having a profound impact on society and playing an important role. One works to be in the middle. It must therefore be the task of politics to create the necessary framework and conditions to achieve this—with a class politics for the working middle that revives neglected distributional conflicts.
This should not only provide rhetorical recognition and appreciation but achieve real improvements for all those who keep the country running. In this way, a ‘solidary we’ can be experienced once more.
Catrina Schläger has been head of the analysis and planning department at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung since May 2021. She previously held various positions in FES international division, including heading the FES office in Shanghai.
Jan Niklas Engels is responsible for empirical social and trend research in the analysis, planning and consulting division of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Previously he worked for the FES in various capacities in Germany and abroad, including as head of the Budapest office.
Annika Arnold is a political advisor in empirical social research within the division for analysis, planning and consulting of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Before joining FES in 2020, she conducted various research projects at the University of Stuttgart, where she also earned her PhD.