3 ms·
The statement about shorter men earning less ("shorter men don’t marry as often, in part because they earn less") was surprising to me and I decided to investi
by thih9 2y ago
The statement about shorter men earning less ("shorter men don’t marry as often, in part because they earn less") was surprising to me and I decided to investigate.
I saw similar statements elsewhere[1]:
> A 2020 study in the scientific journal PLOS One analyzed economic data from over 3,500 Chinese adults and found that every additional centimeter of height was correlated with a 1.3% increase in a person's annual income.
And in another place[2], a 1984–2005 study:
> Results at mean values for males indicate that being 10 cm taller is associated with (...) a $1874–2306 income premium
Fingers crossed for remote work bringing some sort of equalizer effect here.
[1]: https://www.salon.com/2023/01/19/shorter-height-lower-salaries-height-discrimination-is-real-and-can-be-economically-devastating/ https://www.salon.com/2023/01/19/shorter-height-lower-salari...
[2]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1570677X07000676?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S15706...
- HL33tibCe7 2y agoRelatedly, less attractive people earn significantly less
- toomuchtodo 2y agoPay equity is and should be about helping unlucky people be more lucky. One cannot choose to not be a class that receives lower compensation inherently.
- wonderwonder 2y agoLooking forward the the HR role specializing in telling you that you are ugly but because of it you get a 5% pay bump. Or the after interview meeting where your potential coworkers try and decide if they don't want you due to a skill issue or just because you are ugly.
- toomuchtodo 2y agoOr ignore the physical human attributes and pay based on metrics and performance? I’m aware, unlikely to ever occur.
- wonderwonder 2y agoSure I am all for that, that's the way it should be of course.
- relaxing 2y agoIn aome industries blind interviewing is the norm, and it solves those issues quite well. Anecdotally, I interviewed and hired an entire team during the pandemic and most applicants chose to go camera off. It’s turned out great.
- sokoloff 2y agoI then further wonder how much of that difference relates to early childhood nutrition (which would presumably directly affect both height and perhaps directly affects and indirectly correlates with other non-height attributes).
- EscargotCult 2y ago> Fingers crossed for remote work bringing some sort of equalizer effect here. I work at a fully-remote company, and my org had a meetup soon after I first started working here. I was surprised to see how many of the people I work with seemed to be below average height. I've never really done anything to verify it, but I have a hunch based on that anecdata that the median height at my fully-remote company might be lower than the median height of the US population and/or lower than the median height at similarly-sized enterprises that have in-person hiring and work.
- TrainedMonkey 2y agoI wonder how much of that is internal vs external. For example, if taller people have higher self confidence / belief that they should earn more they might be more likely to ask for a raise, move to a higher paying job, or start their own company. The external side could be something like, taller people are more intimidating or likeable and thus have easier time getting what they asked for.
- bsza 2y agoYou’re assuming that all of this is caused by employers having a bias against shorter people. What if shorter people are simply less healthy on average, say, because of the countless genetic disorders, such as Down syndrome, that result in a shorter stature AND other developmental problems?
- boznz 2y agoShorter men need to be richer or funnier I guess if they want a taller wife.
- standardUser 2y agoI'm curious how these studies consider factors like race and ethnic background. In the US for example, Latinos earn less than whites for a lot of reasons. Latino men are also shorter overall than white men. But we can think of a lot of relevant reasons Latino men might earn less than white men in the US before we'd start thinking about specific physical characteristics.
- maxerickson 2y agoThey probably just wing it, come up with an assumption and never revisit it.