There are few things that are more frustrating than women with hair the color of sunshine, legs that have been molded into awesomeness, a smile that could melt a stone, and eyes that are deeper than the Pacific trying to be your “besties”. Wait. There is something more frustrating than those perfect-skinned women — their ability to land a job that requires intelligence and skills! Isn’t the cosmetic, television, modeling industry enough for them? Surely there are enough jobs out there for these rare species to leave the rest of the mortals alone to grab the casual, hard-working, average paying jobs.
You know you want to cut them some slack, it’s not their doing that they are pretty, it is the work of nature, and surely they go through the same troubles with landing jobs and working their way up the corporate ladder as you. But statistics and researches beg to differ. Attractive women’s good fortune does not end at simply landing hotter dates, special gifts, and favors everywhere they go, it goes on to better job prospects, raises and promotions at work too.
Researchers from the University of Texas and Michigan State University, after conducting a thorough survey, concluded that the “penalty for plainness” is 5–10 percent lower pay in all occupations. According to the research, that penalty for bad looks was around $2,000 in salary each year whereas premium for good looks was around $1,100 per year.
This is just one research and wouldn’t really be supported by researchers, analysts, and fair-players across the globe now would it? Or so you would think. There has been various researche in this regard and plenty has been written about this injustice. Forbes in an investigative article titled “Good Looks, Good Pay?” concluded by suggesting, “So, remember your grandmother’s wisdom: Beauty is only skin deep, but true ugliness cuts right to the bone.”
Psychology Today, in a similar article titled “Good Looks Will Get You That Job, Promotion and Raise”, concluded with, “… so it seems that physical appearance is a significant factor in the hiring, compensation, promotion and competence of executives, as much as we would like to think it isn’t.”
And the final nail in the coffin is probably the study by University of Messina, Italy that stated that “unattractive” women only had a 7 percent callback for job opportunities whereas it was 54 percent for attractive women. The same research concluded by stating, “It is better for unattractive women to invest on aesthetic surgery than in education.” Bad investments anyone?
But wait a minute! None of these studies compare the unemployment rates of attractive and unattractive women? The thing is, not only does the stigma that beautiful women are dumb work in your favour, but research shows that a woman may be another woman’s worst enemy, but she can be her best chance of getting a job too, thanks to the higher rate of female staff in the HR department. According to a study conducted by Ben Gurion University in Israel, attractive women are likely to bear the brunt of jealous HR personnel who prefer the unattractive over the attractive when hiring. So there is a bright side after all it seems!
So should you attach your photo to your resume? Turns out, it not only depends on how you look, but also on who’s hiring.
