How Employment Quality Influences Class Identity

Class identity refers to an individual’s perception of one’s own position in the social class structure.Research on class identity is conducive to understanding people’s social attitudes and social behaviors,thereby resolving social conflicts and maintaining social harmony and stability.Previous studies on the influencing factors of class identity mainly follow three approaches:the status-structure theory,the historical and cultural theory and state-centered theory.However,these studies lack the discussion of economic and social life.Therefore,on the basis of previous research and the background of China’s socio-economic transformation,the research analyzes the influencing factors of non-agricultural worker’s class identity and the mediating role of employment fairness from the perspective of employment quality,in order to have a more comprehensive understanding of the class identity of the employed under the background of interest relationship marketization.This research is based on Chinese Social Survey(CSS),and through literature review,class identity is transformed into individual’s perception of their own socioeconomic status,employment quality is divided into eight dimensions,including labor remuneration,administrative authority,working hours,career stability,skills training,insurance benefits,signing of labor contract,job satisfaction.And employment fairness is introduced as an intermediary variable.In addition,the data analysis method used in this study is multiple linear regression.The study found that:first,since 2011,the class identity of non-agricultural workers has declined,but has rebounded after 2019;second,employment quality is an important factor that affects the class identity of non-agricultural workers.Specifically,labor remuneration,administrative authority,career stability,signing of labor contract,and job satisfaction have a significant positive impact on class identity.The negative correlation between working hours and class identity passed the significance test.The impact of skills training and insurance benefits on class identity did not pass the significance test;third,employment fairness played a partial mediating role in the relationship between employment quality and the class identity of non-agricultural workers;fourth,there are group differences in the impact of employment quality on the class identity of non-agricultural workers.Specifically,employment quality has a greater impact on the class identity of female non-agricultural workers than it has on men,the effect on non-agricultural workers with high irreplaceability was greater than that on those with relatively low irreplaceability.