Sydney - The taller you are, the more you earn, but being fat doesn't affect your pay, Australian researchers said Sunday. Being 5 centimetres above average can increase a worker's pay by an average of 1.5 per cent, Andrew Leigh from the Australian National University and Michael Kortt from Sydney University found.
"We see this effect both for men and women, but it's strongest for men," Leigh said. There was no obvious explanation for the effect of height on earnings, they said of the study that found no correlation between weight and wages.
"This is in contrast with previous studies that used older data from the United States and Germany and found that people with higher BMI (body mass index) scores earned lower wages," Leigh said.
Australians are perhaps less likely to discriminate against overweight and obese workers because half of adults are now overweight or obese.
