• 16
  • November
    2011

We have all heard that we should dress for success when it comes to interviews. If we wear a suit and tie, we are more likely to be taken seriously and seen as a competitor for the position. But one study says that employers are actually discriminating against the less than perfect looking candidate.

The university study was published in a novel called "Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful." The author was a professor who headed up the research project that studied the effect that looks had on a person's earning capacity over a lifetime.

According to the research conducted at the University of Texas in Austin, a person who is considered to have above average looks earns on average 3 or 4 percent more than a person who does not fall into that category. Over an entire lifetime, the professor said that it could amount to as much as $230,000.

The professor took a controversial stand in an interview when he suggested that those who consider themselves less than attractive may have a difficult time in every field, especially those that make the employee visually accessible. The jobs he listed included face-to-face sales positions, on screen jobs like television broadcasters and actors.

The professor did say that his conclusions were unfair as they exist in the employment realm. He also alluded to his belief that the discrimination could be considered a certain kind of disability discrimination. "Disability is analogous," he said, although he did not make any immediate claims to change the practice. The study also did not differentiate between subconscious or intentional discrimination.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, "On the Job, Beauty Is More Than Skin Deep," Sue Shellenbarger, Oct. 27, 2011