Cognitive ability and socio-economic status relations with job performance

The relative independence of cognitive ability measures from socio-economic status (SES) continues to be a source of debate in work and academic settings. This paper examines the contribution of cognitive ability and SES in predicting subsequent work performance and evaluations of career potential. When predicting job performance, SES contributed very little after controlling for cognitive ability. When SES was controlled, ability retained strong criterion related validity. However, in career potential ratings it was ability that contributed little after controlling for SES. Judgments of potential, but not the ability–performance relationship, are possibly unduly influenced by SES.