| Sumario: | The article presents research report of the author on income, class and reference group. The data presented in the article strongly suggest that the familiar notions about collapsing class differences deserve reanalysis. Once unlikely reference groups are excluded, no reversal of income levels is evident. Furthermore, the superior position of the white-collar group is probably even greater than the income data indicate because of likely mobility out of this rank into a still better paid category. The thesis of collapsing differences may well be the result of including in the clerical and sales category increasing numbers of people who are basically irrelevant to the hypothesis, i.e., women, young people, students, and the aged. If male household heads could be compared over time, taking into account mobility between census categories, the basic finding might well demonstrate the continued superiority of the lower white-collar over the upper blue-collar workers with regard to life chances and the conventional symbols of middle class status.
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