An Occupational Status Scale for Russia

In this paper I construct an occupational status scale for postSoviet Russia using data from the ISSP for 1992–2006 and Goodman’s RC type II model. The resulting scale is similar to the scales previously constructed for Western countries. The status scales for Russia and the United States were formally compared, with only minor differences found. In both countries non-manual occupations rank higher than manual, and professionals rank higher than managers. The scale for Russia is well correlated with education, subjective social class and self-placement on the scale of perceived social hierarchy, as well as with international occupational scales, in particular the ISEI. The scale can be used in further empirical research of social inequality in Russia.