Social mobility is so frozen that it would take five generations for a poorer family in the UK to reach the average income, an OECD report says.
The economics think tank says income inequality has widened since the 1990s, with high earners accelerating ahead. Those born before 1975 had much more chance of social mobility than those born afterwards, the study says. The international study, A Broken Social Elevator?, says high earners are getting bigger rewards and consolidating wealth for the next generations. It also says those at the bottom of the ladder are finding it increasingly difficult to help their families catch up - with social mobility declining.
For those people born between 1955 and 1975, the research says, social mobility was a "reality", with people born into low-income families able to move up in terms of education and earnings.
But the OECD study suggests that those born afterwards, becoming adults in the 1990s and later, faced "stagnating" social mobility.
Researchers found a high likelihood of people being "stuck" in the income group into which they were born, with those born into poorer families likely to remain poor and those from high-income families going on to become high earners themselves.
There was also a trend for middle class families to have slipped further behind the highest paid - and for some to have got much closer to low earners.
In the UK, the study found only about a fifth of the children of low-income families went on to become high earners.
