For those of you who are Lilliputians, I’ve got a little bad news for you. I’ll give you the long and the short of it; a new study states the shorter you are the less money you will earn.
According to a new study published in the scientific journal BMJ, being an overweight woman or a short man is correlated with a lower salary. This was no tiny study and they went to great lengths to see if height-impaired individuals are being short-changed. British researchers studied a large pool of people, 119,669 men and women with a range of different genetic traits as well as their income. The researchers noticed that the height and body mass index of the participants seemed to have a big connection with their salary.
Men who were lacking in height came up short in the pay department. The researchers discovered that for every 2.5 inches of extra height in men, they were 12 percent more likely to work in a high-status job and they earned approximately $1,611 more per year. So for shorter people, not only is their income smaller, but it’s also harder for them to climb the corporate ladder. These results are a big deal and can’t be overlooked.
As for the ladies, they too found physical traits had a bearing on their pay. For every 4.6-point increase in B.M.I. in women, it resulted in $4,200 less in annual income.
“The data shows that there is a causal effect from being genetically a bit shorter or fatter that leads you to being worse off in life. Previously we didn’t know that,”
University of Exeter human genetics professor Timothy Frayling said.
I know it’s a tall order, but we should never look down on someone just because they are shorter or have a lower opinion of a person who has a few more pounds. We shouldn’t focus on their short comings, but instead, we should raise them up and hold them in high regard. Only when you disregard the little things can you watch a person grow.
The stakes are too high, I’m just glad that I’m above all this and over 6-foot tall.
[NYT]