Why obese women get low pay
Credit to Author: REY ELBO| Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2019 16:18:09 +0000
THAT’S assuming they’re hired, in the first place. It’s totally wrong, but that’s the way it goes in the corporate world. Go ahead, look surreptitiously at your women colleagues and find out who among them are silent victims. However, don’t commit the mistake of showing this article to them unless you want to start a fight, if not a protest against “body shaming” and overweight discrimination, among other distasteful workplace sumo collisions.
No matter how well-educated a fat woman is and regardless of her work experience, if she failed to outgrow her “baby fat” before and during employment, the result would always be against her.
If and when they’re lucky to be hired, they’re often assigned at the back room, if not at the basement where they can’t be seen by customers. Many decades back in the banking industry, I
remember how we assigned obese female tellers at the withdrawal counters or complaint sections to ward off “evil” or malicious intents from customers.
Women’s obesity becomes a double whammy if they appear to be with “bad teeth,” according to Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner of the Freaknomics fame.
People at the corporate world, even if they refuse to admit it, would not hire overweight women, which may not happen in the case of men in the heavyweight category. “All over the world, countless studies reveal that overweight employees face widespread prejudice,” says Renate van der Zee in The Guardian. “To begin with, they are less likely to be hired for a job. In a 2016 study led by psychologist Stuart W. Flint of Sheffield Hallam University, participants were asked to evaluate candidates for different types of jobs.
“Shown hypothetical CVs with photographs depicting fat and thin people, the participants clearly perceived men and women of average weight to be the most suitable for employment. Obese women were the least likely to be hired. The researchers concluded that stereotypes of obese people being ‘less physically capable and slothful’ were likely to have played a role in this outcome.
In 2017, University of Pennsylvania researchers concluded that obese people are stereotyped as being “lazy, incompetent, unattractive, lacking willpower and to blame for their excess weight. The result of this prejudice is not only that overweight people stand less chance of getting a job; they are paid less, too.”
London Business School professor Freek Vermeulen, writing for Forbes says: “The world of business is still rife with discrimination. Women get paid less than men, people who are physically attractive earn more and are more likely to be seen as suitable leaders, and race determines chances of promotion.”
In his 2011 article entitled – “The Price of Obesity: How Your Salary Depends on Your Weight,” Vermeulen concludes that: “Various studies have shown that overweight people are seen as less conscientious, less agreeable, less emotionally stable, less productive, lazy, lacking in self-discipline, and even dishonest, sloppy, ugly, socially unattractive, and sexually unskilled; the list goes on and on.
“Sexually unskilled?” What’s that? Can you please explain it to my virgin ears?
Anyway, Vermeulen further claims that: “The stereotypes run so deep that even obese people hold these same discriminatory beliefs about other obese people. Therefore, it may come as no
surprise that research has provided strong evidence that obese people are paid less than their slimmer counterparts.”
But how fat is fat? It depends much on the race and culture. Sarah Boseley, the Health editor of The Guardian says there’s a study suggesting “that African American women in the US have a different picture of what unhealthy weight looks like than medical experts.”
Sometimes obese women are in a denial stage if not claiming that they’re within their standard BMI (body mass index). Boseley, however thinks that: “What is going on here is that the cultural belief of the women as to what “too fat” looks like and therefore what is unhealthy is at odds with what the medical profession thinks.”
I’m not sure if we have a similar published study for Filipinos. The closest that I discovered is a 2017 Business Mirror report by Henrylito Tacio claiming that “obese Filipinos now ballooning.” Citing a research done by Asia Roundtable on Food Innovation for Improved Nutrition (ARoFIIN) and produced by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Tacio reports that:
“Among the six countries studied, the Philippines has the second-lowest obesity and overweight prevalence at 5.1 percent and 23.6 percent, respectively. But despite low prevalence rates, obesity has a strong impact in the Philippines due to the large number of obese persons in the country—18 million Filipinos are obese and overweight,” the report said.
And so, how many of these are potential victims of body shaming in the workplace? It’s not clear in the report. But even if only 20 percent of that 18 million are considered obese women workers, imagine how they would be faring in the 2019 projected six percent salary increase for corporate workers, according to the latest study of Willis Towers Watson.
This is an interesting challenge for Gabriela and other women cause-oriented groups. In particular, this is a job for Mae Paner, aka Juana Change. In the meantime, you will not see me lining up in queue in a fast food restaurant after an obese woman, even if she’s the only one waiting to be served.
Rey Elbo is a business consultant specializing in human resources and total quality management as a fused interest. Send feedback to elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://reyelbo.consulting
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