People from lower social classes are less likely to ask for more money, a promotion or a better deal at work, and when they do ask, they are punished more for it. Across five studies with more than 11,000 people, researchers found this double bind helps explain why lower-class workers earn less and rise more slowly even with the same credentials.
The study, “The social-class gap in negotiation: Lower-class individuals negotiate less and face more backlash,” is by Ying Lin of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Jackson G. Lu of MIT’s Sloan School of Management and Michele J. Gelfand of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. It was published in PNAS on July 24, 2026.
The gap shows up in Australia, among MBAs and online
The first four studies (total N = 10,211) looked for the gap in very different settings. Study 1 used a nationally representative survey of 7,883 Australian employees from 1,383 companies. Better-educated workers were more likely to have negotiated their starting pay, and that difference held within each of the 10 most common occupations, whose baseline negotiation rates ranged from 7% to 67%.
Study 2 followed 634 graduates of an MBA program at a leading U.S. business school, people with very similar credentials. Those whose parents had less education were less likely to negotiate their first salary. Graduates who did not negotiate started on about $6,450 a year less, a gap the authors estimate could compound to roughly $779,000 over a 40-year career at 5% annual raises.
Study 3 was a field test on the Prolific online platform. After a drawing-guessing task, 699 U.S. adults were told by private message that their bonus was $0.50 and that “the exact payment is negotiable.” Only 39 explicitly asked for more, and higher-class participants were more likely to be among them. Lower-class participants had not performed worse on the task, nor did they rate their own performance lower.
Less power, more fear of looking pushy
Study 4 surveyed 995 U.S. full-time workers about negotiating salary, benefits, promotions, raises and job content. Higher social class predicted negotiating on all of them. Negotiating paid: about 95% of those who asked for a promotion got one, against 48% of those who did not ask.
Two psychological factors partly explained the gap: a weaker sense of power and greater worry about social backlash, such as being seen as uncooperative. In the MBA data, lower-class graduates who did not negotiate were also more likely to say they did not want to damage the relationship.
Hiring managers penalize the same request more
Study 5 tested whether that worry is justified. A total of 1,133 U.S. HR professionals rated a fictitious marketing candidate whose résumé and interview signaled either a higher-class or a lower-class background. In half the cases, the candidate asked for his salary to be raised from $80,000 to $100,000 plus a bonus.
Negotiating made both candidates look less cooperative, but the penalty was significantly larger for the lower-class candidate, and that lower perceived cooperativeness in turn reduced how likely HR professionals were to hire him. Other ratings, such as competence, did not differ by class.
The authors note limits: Study 1 used education as a stand-in for class, and they did not examine how the social class of the person on the other side of the table changes the picture. They argue that simply coaching lower-class workers to ask more is not enough, and point to pay transparency, such as disclosing salary ranges and making clear what can be negotiated, as a way to make the “rules of the game” visible to everyone.
Study Details:
- Title: The social-class gap in negotiation: Lower-class individuals negotiate less and face more backlash
- Authors: Ying Lin, Jackson G. Lu, Michele J. Gelfand
- Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Vol. 123, No. 30
- Publication Date: July 28, 2026 (published online July 24, 2026)
- DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2602128123