The pay disparity associated with obesity is more severe than perceived

In the City of London, three males can be seen traversing the street.

 People who are obese are subjected to discrimination in a variety of areas, and the workplace is included in this. Research has continually demonstrated that workers who are considered overweight, meaning they have a body-mass index (BMI) of 30 or above, make less money than their thinner colleagues. In the United States, some state and local governments are looking into legislation to prevent this type of treatment. On November 22nd, a ban of this kind was implemented in New York City.

 It has been suggested that the costs of weight discrimination could be greater than originally thought. The Institute for Employment Studies, a British think-tank, shared the idea that only women living with obesity experience a wage penalty in their report. To see if this was true, The Economist used data from the American Time Use Survey conducted by the Bureau of Labour Statistics. After number-crunching, it was revealed that being obese affects the earnings of both genders.

 An image from The Economist can be seen depicting an individual with a laptop, their face illuminated by the device's bright screen. The person is surrounded by a darkness, symbolizing the potential pitfalls of the digital age.

 We studied the BMI of men and women who were between the ages of 25 and 54 and were working full-time. Generally, there was no link between male BMI and salary. However, that was not the case for males who had university degrees. Our research showed that obese males with degrees suffered a salary penalty of nearly 8%, once we accounted for age, race, advanced schooling and marital status. We conducted another analysis with an alternate dataset which included close to 90,000 individuals from the Department of Health and Human Services and reached similar conclusions.

 The results suggest that, in comparison to their thinner counterparts, people who have higher levels of education are disproportionately affected regardless of their gender (refer to chart 1). It was observed that, in the case of men, those with a bachelor's degree make 5% less if they are obese, and 14% less if they have a graduate degree. The effect is even more pronounced in women, with obese individuals having a 12% and 19% wage gap respectively with those who have a bachelor's and a graduate degree.

 An image from The Economist is presented, depicting a scene of a person sitting in front of a computer.

 When assessing the wages for particular professions and industries, the largest gaps were seen in higher-skilled careers. Obese people employed in the health care field earned 11% less than their peers with lower Body Mass Indexes, while those in management roles saw an average decrease of 9% in wages. Interestingly, in some areas such as construction and agriculture, obesity was associated with a higher salary. Evidently, your vocation makes a difference (see chart 2).

 It is evident that the financial toll of wage discrimination against overweight people in the U.S. is substantial. If we assume that only obese women experience a wage penalty of 7% (the average among all women in the sample) and that it is consistent among all education levels, then the estimated cost is approximately $30 billion per year. However, if we factor in the discrimination men face and the higher penalty for those with higher education (who also make higher salaries), the total cost for this extended group is nearly $70 billion annually.

 What can be done? Several cities, including San Francisco and Washington, DC, have already implemented laws to prohibit discrimination based on physical appearance. Several states, like Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Vermont, are in the process of considering similar bills. New York City's ban, which went into effect on November 22nd, prohibits weight-based discrimination in areas such as employment, housing, and public places like hotels and restaurants. However, it is doubtful that it will be effective. When examining the case of Michigan, where a similar ban has been in place for nearly 50 years, the wage penalty for obesity is still the same as the national average. Legalizing discrimination is one thing, but getting rid of it from society entirely is an entirely different matter.

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 Research has recently revealed that the pay gap between individuals with and without obesity is even greater than once thought. This data comes from a study published by The Economist on November 23, 2023.