Why Do Obese Women Earn Less Than Thin Women?
For more than two decades, economists have noticed that obesity has a, well, weighty impact on income, particularly for women. A well-known 2004 study, for example, found that a 65-pound increase in a woman’s weight is associated with a 9-percent drop in wages — an obesity penalty equivalent to about three years of work experience.
“But economists have been really puzzled as to why,” says Jennifer Bennett Shinall, an assistant professor of law at Vanderbilt University. “Why are female obese individuals doing worse in the labor market?”
Research has focused on three possible explanations. The first points the finger at the employee herself. It says that obese women are choosing to work in jobs that happen to pay less.
The other two explanations focus on the employer. One says that employers are paying obese women less because they’re less productive. “It’s the idea that weight gets in the way of you doing your job,” Shinall says.
The final explanation suggests that employers are paying obese women less because of personal preferences: either they don’t like working with obese women, or they’re concerned that their customers or clients would prefer not to work with them.
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