CNN and CareerBuilder.com published a story yesterday about yet another research study – this one, by econ professors Daniel Hamermesh of the University of Texas and Jeff Biddle of Michigan State University – that proves, once again, the advantage that good-looking people have in the workplace, or maybe it’s more the disadvantage the rest of us mere mortals haul around like a dead carcass.
This study pegs the penalty of homeliness at 8-18% of pay.
A similar study from London Guildhall University of 11,000 33-year-olds found that unattractive men earned 15 percent less than those deemed attractive, while plain women earned 11 percent less than their prettier counterparts.
The story references several other research papers:
– short stature costs workers $789 a year per inch in pay;
– the difference in starting salaries for college grads is a full 12% between the tallest and the shortest; and
– in the London Guildhall study, overweight women get hit with a 5% pay reduction.
The story than goes on to quote largely unnamed “hiring managers” who refute all this with the glib advice that self-confidence and a spiffy wardrobe overcome all.
Of course, rather than discourage us from buying this load, they offer nary a shred – not even the requisite scintilla – of evidence to back up “their” claim.
I’d like to follow their inestimable advice, I really would, but I’m too busy with my royal duties as Marie of Roumania.