Ugly truth about pay: good looks and high wages go together
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Your support makes all the difference.In the 21st century, the battle for equality is no longer simply between the sexes - it is now a fight between the beautiful and the ugly, the fatties versus the skinnies, and the tall against the short.
In the 21st century, the battle for equality is no longer simply between the sexes - it is now a fight between the beautiful and the ugly, the fatties versus the skinnies, and the tall against the short.
Many people have long suggested that pretty women earn more than their plainer sisters and now a survey has found that tall, thin and handsome men have better employment prospects than their smaller, fatter and, well, uglier colleagues.
Researchers at the London Guildhall University studied 11,000 people aged 33 and found substantial wage differences between those deemed to be attractive and those regarded as plain. If average male earnings are £20,000 a year, then a less alluring specimen can expect to take home only £17,000.
Not only the face is important. Tall people can out-earn the short by as much as 10 per cent for men and 5 per cent for women. A woman deemed obese can expect to earn 5 per cent less than a thin one. However, fat men apparently suffer less than large women when it comes to pay and opportunities.
The survey claims that employer prejudice over an employee's physical appearance is widespread. Yet good looks are apparently less of an advantage in professional occupations. Women suffer the biggest wage penalty in clerical and secretarial jobs if they are small and fat, earning up to 15 per cent less than their more attractive, slimmer colleagues.
Not surprisingly, those who work in jobs where they meet the public are more likely to thrive if they are perceived as tall, thin and handsome - dark is not necessarily a prerequisite.
"The penalty for plainness far exceeds any premium for beauty," said Barry Harper, an economist at the university and one of the authors of the survey. "There is an urgent need for business and government to review their equal opportunities policy."
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