The Differential Rewards of Beauty

I've just come across yet another article telling us what's long been established, i.e., that it pays in the job market to be tall and good looking, whatever one's skills may be; but I'm not posting this just to highlight such a banal finding, however, as the following bit was what really caught my eye.

Economists Susan Averett and Sanders Korenman studied the effects of obesity on wages, using a sample consisting of individuals aged 16-24 in 1981 who were 23-31 in 1988. They showed that women who were obese according to their Body Mass Index (BMI) in both 1981 and 1988 earned 17 percent lower wages on average than women within their recommended BMI range. However, women who became obese between those two survey years earned only slightly less than women of recommended BMI. When comparing by race, the authors found a wage penalty for obesity among white women but no significant penalty for black women. Among white men, they found a much lower wage penalty for obesity than for their white female counterparts. A small positive relationship was actually found between obese black men and wages.

In a similar study, economist John Cawley found that the only group for which weight consistently lowered wages is white females.3 His results show that for a typical white woman weighing 64 pounds more than an otherwise-similar white female of average weight, the former’s wage will be about 9 percent lower.

Now this is certainly odd on the face of it: why should white women alone be penalized for something every other group gets a pass for? My own hypothesis for this anomaly is simple: because they're the one group those making the wage decisions happen to be sexually attracted to. If one isn't gay or attracted to black women, then one won't care in the least what they weigh, while the problem for white females is that quite a few of their bosses probably can't help their minds straying to thoughts of other "services" when deciding what they're worth on the job market. Assuming my explanation is correct, the higher incidence of eating disorders amongst white women (particularly those of middle class origin) comes to seem less irrational than one might have thought: as the rewards of being slim (and therefore "beautiful") are greater for them, they naturally put a lot more effort into meeting the criterion.

The positive association for black men and obesity is also likely explained by the stereotypical association of obesity with jollity*, which probably helps to make black men seem less threatening in the eyes of employers.

*As Shakespeare has Julius Caesar say, "Let me have men about me that are fat, sleek headed men and such as sleep o' nights. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; he thinks too much, such men are dangerous."

Comments

[Julian Elson]

Interesting point. The question that hits me, then, is "why is it that all sexually unattractive (vis-a-vis straight white male employers) groups get "normal" wage along with white non-obese women, while an obese white woman gets a wage penalty? Why isn't it that other people get normal wages EXCEPT white, non-obese women, and white non-obese women get a wage bonus?" At a simplistic, first-glance analysis, if wages are based on sexual attractiveness, then that explains the lack of a big gap between obese men and non-obese men, but one might expect obese women to be put into the same category as men, with sexually attractive women getting a bonus, rather than obese women getting a penalty that doesn't apply to other non-sexually attracting groups.

[Abiola Lapite]

"Why isn't it that other people get normal wages EXCEPT white, non-obese women, and white non-obese women get a wage bonus?"

Maybe because their bosses hold their lack of attractiveness against them, as if it were something they ought by right to provide as part of the job.

[Shai]

I'm just wondering if there is an effect on the person of a more general systematic bias of society. The effect on self esteem when being treated with contempt or indifference*, an additive effect of the bias that causes little opportunities to be lost, withdrawl caused by internalization of treatment or negative body image*.

* I got a taste of this last summer when I shaved my head. before, most people seemed pleasant. after I would run into at least a few people a day who were very unpleasant. i did start feeling a little anxious, but before that the only change was in my appearance.

* e.g. notice how less attractive people often place themself in the periphery of a photograph... maybe that's a metaphor for what happens in social relationships at work, so maybe part of the effect is a little indirect

all just random speculation of course

[Abiola Lapite]

"I got a taste of this last summer when I shaved my head. before, most people seemed pleasant. after I would run into at least a few people a day who were very unpleasant."

Perhaps that had less to do with how they perceived your attractiveness and more to do with a fear that you harbored skinhead sensibilities?

[Shai]

well by shaved I didn't mean to the skin, but yeah I do have blue eyes. i think it was more the goofy looking ears and facial features that need a little support from the hair, because this was with people i've interacted with before too. also, when you wear nice clothes people tend to expect more from your appearance. jeans and t-shirt you're not noticed at all and no one does a double take wondering why you aren't in your place.