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Your Looks Affect Your Income

by Flexo on April 11, 2005

in Career and Work

After education and experience are factored out, good-looking, tall people simply make more — 5 percent more — than average-looking individuals.

This study was released by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Not only did they discover that beautiful people make more than average, but below-average looks carry a 9 percent penalty.

There could be several reasons for this. Maybe better-looking people can attract and keep more clients and more business, but that reason isn’t appropriate for every job. The Fed suggests “good, old-fashioned discrimination.”

Full disclosure: My height is below average. As far as looks, well I can only leave that up to other people to decide.

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About the Author

Flexo, the owner and creator of Consumerism Commentary, has been blogging and writing for the internet since 1995 and has been building online communities since 1991. Find out more about him and follow him on Twitter.

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  • whoknows
    why, how tall are you?
  • Anonymous
    Isn't there some statistic that the tallest US presidential candidate almost always wins?
  • If there is, it was proven wrong in 2004; Kerry towers over Bush. And for the record, I'm five-foot-four.
  • I don't think this is new information. I'm pretty sure I've heard that before, and it just kind of makes sense. In general, people are more inclined to deal with people who are good looking. You're more likely to listen to them and work with them because you don't mind (or enjoy) looking at them. Conversely, who wants to look at an ugly person all day?
  • It certainly wasn't the first study. Here's more information. But making sense doesn't always translate to statistical significance, so don't let that be your only measure.
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