Summary 3

Education is a key driver of social (im)mobility 5

Living in ‘deep poverty’ in childhood casts a long shadow of disadvantage later in life 8

Graduates who were disadvantaged attend less selective universities and get lower degree marks – but this only explains half of the pay gap 11

A stubborn and large pay gap remains even for workers with the same education, in the same region and the same firm 14

The raw gap narrows slightly with experience, driven by workers who were disadvantaged in childhood moving up the job ladder 17

Policy needs to be tough on the pay gap, as well as the causes of the pay gap 19