DOES APPEARANCE MATTER IN THE LABOUR MARKET?
We live in an era of equal opportunities – legislation protects employees from discrimination on the basis of disability, sex or race but is there another form of prejudice affecting our career prospects? Studies in North America have suggested that physical appearance – attractiveness, height and weight – affects the jobs we do and the money we earn. Now Barry Harper of the department of economics at London Guildhall University has confirmed their findings in the first large-scale investigation of the issue in the UK. “We investigated a sample of over 11,000 people aged 33, examining the effects of looks, height and obesity on hourly pay, employment and on a person s marriage prospects,” explains Barry Harper. “Looks were assessed when these individuals were still at school. We find that attractive people earn more than unattractive people; looks affect men as much as they do women; tall men, but not tall women, earn substantially more than their colleagues; those who are short earn l
