Class is an undeniable factor when it comes to finding employment. An investigation by 20/20 in 2004 revealed that hiring decisions weigh heavily on job applicants' physical appearance. And teeth are a significant part of personal physical appearance. Visibly decayed, broken, or missing teeth is a highly noticeable social class marker.
Income Determines Class
When people apply for jobs, they're typically required to disclose their social security number on job applications. Doing so grants consent for employers to do credit checks. Pulling credit reports is a form of "poverty profiling" in the hiring process. The credit report is linked to an individual's social security number. The credit report reveals age, which is often held against applicants by employers. Applicants with significant work history gaps are the most disadvantaged in the hiring process. The credit report also reveals where an individual lives. It shows any outstanding medical bills, indicating an applicant might have health problems which can deter employment - even though job discrimination against those with disabilities and medical conditions is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Credit reports also show if someone has a troubled payment history for basic life-sustaining utilities and evictions from non-payment of rent. Difficulty paying for basic shelter and utilities is a red flag indicating that someone is poor, "the Other" - and therefore an undeserving, unworthy, social deviant who failed to get with the middle class program.
Levi Hipp, former general manager for the Wal-Marts which opened in Erie, Pennsylvania's impoverished east side in 2004 admitted that it was corporate policy to avoid hiring those from the lowest socio-economic rung. Hipp stated during his February 2004 interview that, "the poor are more likely to steal and lack work ethic." The Wal-Mart jobs were part-time and paid $6 an hour, with no benefits.
But it's not just negative stereotypes about the poor that serve as barriers to employment and other social opportunities. Lack of connections and cultural capital and resources also hold the poor back. When you're poor, you live in a world of only the poor. Consequently, your social network is only made up of other poor people - those who are unable to help with references or social opportunities that lead to job opportunities.
Class Determines Employment
It can be argued that class can be changed by employment because a job will lift someone out of poverty. A good job will bump you up a notch or three on the socio-economic ladder. But job loss and a protracted, fruitless job search will hurl you into the death spiral of poverty. Since employers engage in poverty profiling and lookism, class determines one's opportunities. Class determines employement, which determines class in a macabre catch-22.
It can be claimed that class bias is easier to circumvent than race, age, and gender because poor whites can simply take a bath, don a thrift store suit, and change their name in order to "pass" for middle or upper class. But class is not so easy to fake. Chuck Barone, PhD of Dickenson University points out that class is less fluid than most people assume. Lack of access to dental care and inability to afford to shine up your image or obtain cosmetic surgery to correct flaws such as weight problems, etc., are evident in personal appearance. Inability to afford to go out in order to cultivate social capital also hold the poor back. When you're poor, you can't afford to participate in society and build cultural and social capital - the connections which facilitate access to opportunity. When you're poor, you cannot "pass" for middle or upper class.
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