Thin Women Make More Money, Thin Men Make Less

New study shows it pays to be skinny—for ladies
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 7, 2010 9:03 AM CDT
Thin Women Make More Money, Thin Men Make Less
The woman on the left might make more money than the woman on the right.   (Shutter Stock)

If you want to snag a higher paycheck, get skinny—unless you're a guy, in which case you’d do better to pack on the pounds, according to a new study. The new research shows that employers tend to pay very thin women more than their average-weight counterparts, while very thin men tend to get paid less, the Wall Street Journal reports. Paychecks for men continue to rise even as they pass average weight to overweight, a trend which does not start to reverse until they hit obesity.

Women who weighed 25 pounds less than the norm earned an average of $15,572 more per year, and those who weighed more were penalized as their weight increased—a woman 25 pounds above the norm earned an average $13,847 less. Men, on the other hand, earned $8,437 less if they were thin, and one study showed that the highest average pay point was 207 pounds. Sure, this could all be due to prejudice, but the study also suggests people with the “ideal” body type may wield more influence and therefore get more things done.
(More body image stories.)

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