Private school alumni 10pc ahead in pay by age of 25

PRIVATE school pupils earn 10 per cent more than their state-educated peers by the time they are 25, even if they do not have better grades, a study has found.

Alumni of fee-paying schools are also more likely to have “high-status” occupations by this age, according to academics at University College London’s Institute of Education.

Researchers analysed data from the Next Steps cohort study, which followed the progress of over 4,800 people who were born in 1990.

They found that the average annual salary of a 25-year-old who had gone to a private school was £28,974 while the average salary of their state educated peers was £20,857, a difference of 35 per cent.

Once their socio-economic background was taken into account, the difference shrunk to 16 per cent. And after GCSE and A-level grades were factored in, as well as their university, the salaries of privately educated adults still remained 10 per cent ahead.

Prof Francis Green, the lead author of the study, said: “This is quite striking … That is saying there is something beyond the fact that they [privately educated adults] have better qualifications.

“The suggestion is that it is due to other things like social networks or cultural capital.

“Sometimes people put it more pejoratively, like a sense of entitlement, over-confidence that somehow enables you to blag you way into a better job.”

He said that the data they analysed only looked at salaries at age 25, adding: “Salaries will probably increase as careers go on – whether it’s big enough to compensate for the high school fees is another matter.”

The study was published in the Journal of Social Policy.