Is Being Overweight Bad for Your Wallet?

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It’s common knowledge that being overweight can cause great health risks, but what if gaining 25 pounds could also cost you $400,000 in pay?

Throughout the past few decades, we have made a lot of strides when it comes to prejudices, but when it comes to weight, the judgmental glares and biases seem to linger on. According to a new study conducted with several factors in mind — including age, gender, education level, smoking, alcohol consumption, hours worked, childhood socioeconomics, job complexity — your pay is affected by your weight. The results of the study are backed by annually collected data over a 25-year period with over 12,000 U.S. citizens.

An article in Forbes about the study highlighted the following findings:

• For women, any weight gain leads to a salary reduction. Very thin women have it the worst; should they gain enough weight to be considered average weight, they experience the most severe salary reduction.
• Gaining 25 lbs. produced an average predicted salary reduction of over $15,000 annually for women who were below average weight.
• Gaining 25 lbs. produced an average predicted salary reduction of nearly $14,000 annually for women at average weight.
• Men experienced the opposite: men who were 25 pounds over the average weight earned more than men who were 25 lbs. under the average weight.

Now this is a double standard that’s difficult to swallow. There should be a standard of fair pay for everyone: male, female, skinny or overweight. Maybe we can focus the next 25 years putting our efforts toward that rather than doing a study about it.

(By Marissa Brassfield for CalorieLab)

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Is Being Overweight Bad for Your Wallet? is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

Source: http://calorielab.com/news/2012/09/10/is-being-overweight-bad-for-your-wallet/

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