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Internet Exercises
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1

According to the functionalist view of stratification, employers pay people more when their jobs involve a long training period, difficult or dangerous work, or some other form of sacrifice. In evaluating the functionalist view, it may be instructive to look through salary statistics for various jobs, in order to see whether those patterns are consistent with functionalist expectations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics website (www.bls.gov) is a rich source of such salary data.

Click on Wages by Area and Occupation, on the right-hand side of the page (under Wages, Earnings, & Benefits), then click on For 450 Occupations, and click on "Rankings of Full-Time Occupations, by Earnings, 2000" (under Publications and Other Documentation). Read through the ranked list of occupations and answer these questions:
  1. Do you note any exceptions to the functionalist rule that employers compensate workers in jobs requiring more training better? Do you see contradictions to any other functionalist claims?
  2. Is there a clear relationship between the number of hours worked per year, and the hourly pay rate of these occupations?
  3. What do you note about patterns in the major occupational groups on this list (in the last column of the chart)?
  4. Based on what you see in this chart, is the pattern of occupational rewards more consistent with the functionalist view or the conflict view?
  5. Find your present or anticipated occupation on the list. Where does it rank in earnings? Is this occupation fairly compensated, in your view?





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