Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 33 (2013) 1–12 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Men’s race-based mobility into management: Analyses at the blue collar and white collar job levels George Wilson a,* , David Maume b a University of Miami, United States b University of Cincinnati, United States Received 3 October 2012; received in revised form 9 April 2013; accepted 14 April 2013 Available online 19 April 2013 Abstract There are few theoretical perspectives that address the dynamics of race-based mobility in the American workplace. The “par- ticularistic mobility thesis” fills this gap: it maintains that even when groups work in similar jobs, discriminatorily induced dynamics associated with the relative inability of minorities to demonstrate informal characteristics—such as loyalty and sound judgment—constitute a handicap in mobility into managerial positions. Findings based on the 2004–2010 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics support theory and indicate that from both white collar and blue collar job levels African American and Latino men, relative to White gender counterparts, are disadvantaged: they have lower rates of mobility, are restricted to a formal route to reach managerial positions that is less dependent on a traditional range of stratification-based causal factors including background status, human capital, and job/labor market characteristics, and take longer to reach management. Further, as predicted by theory, along all issues differences, relative to Whites, are greater among African Americans than Latinos and greater among those tracked from blue collar jobs than white collar jobs. Implications of the findings for understanding short-term and long-term minority disadvantage in the American labor market are discussed. © 2013 International Sociological Association Research Committee 28 on Social Stratification and Mobility. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Race; Occupational mobility; Management In the context of race-based mobility analyses, sociologists have advocated conducting more refined analyses than has been typically performed (Roscigno, 2007; Stainback, Tomaskovic-Devey, & Skaggs, 2010; Wilson & Roscigno, 2010). In this regard, the state- ment by Wilson and Roscigno (2010:75) is typical: “race-based analyses among those working in the same * Corresponding author at: Department of Sociology, University of Miami, Merrick Building, Coral Gables, FL 33124, United States. Tel.: +1 305 284 6156; fax: +1 305 284 5310. E-mail address: Gwilson1@miami.edu (G. Wilson). or substantially similar jobs should be undertaken as a supplement to the more typical practice of focusing on occupations, which are broad aggregations of jobs and display significant variation in workplace roles and accompanying rewards and status”. Along these lines, comparisons of those in substantially similar jobs con- stitute about as “level a playing field” as can be obtained in stratification research (Smith, 2005; Tomaskovic- Devey & Skaggs, 1999). Indeed, sociologists have underscored the common work roles and “supply side” characteristics of incumbents in similar jobs, they “tend to perform similar work tasks and activities performed in a work role” (Bridges & Villemez, 1994:32) and 0276-5624/$ – see front matter © 2013 International Sociological Association Research Committee 28 on Social Stratification and Mobility. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2013.04.001