Watch out if you happen to be overweight!  Overall, studies have shown that obese workers were paid on average from 1.4% to 4.5% less than slimmer co-workers.   This pay-cut is generally considered an eye for an eye.  An April 10, 2008 Management Issues report estimates that due to increased illness and insurance costs, obese employees cost United States industry 45 billion dollars each year.  No one disputes that figure.  Nearly all studies utilize the standard means of defining obesity, using body mass index (BMI), a formula that factors in an individual’s height and weight in determining obesity. The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) provides the following BMI guidelines: 

• If you are 5’9” tall and weigh 128 lbs or less and have a BMI under 18.5, you are underweight. 
• If you are 5’9” tall and weigh 125-168 lbs and have a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9, you are at a healthy weight. 
• If you are 5’9” tall and weigh 169-202 lbs and have a BMI of 25-29.9, you are considered overweight. 
• If you are 5’9” tall and weigh 203 lbs or more and have a BMI above 30, you qualify for being officially obese.    

But if you happen to be a woman, Caucasian and overweight, you will need to watch out even more!  Overweight men can be penalized up to 2.6% of the typical salary that slimmer men make, but for overweight white women  that penalty can go all the way to 6.2%  . Its fine and dandy to rationalize that obesity causes higher healthcare costs and thus higher insurance payments made by employers, but do we really know that the increased cost of healthcare for obesity is caused more by white, overweight women than any other people with a weight problem?

 A 2007 Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed an increasing trend toward penalizing white, overweight women more than any other group. David Lempert, the author of the study, states that previous studies have shown white women to be the only race-gender group whose weight significantly impacts their salaries, and this most recent study only showed this bias increasing.  Heavier workers have been shown to receive an average of $1.25 less than slimmer co-workers doing the same job.  This amounts to an estimated $100,000 less in gross salary over a 40 year career!  Even slightly heavy women make 6% less in wages than other, thinner women.  Very heavy women make 24% less!  Such a penalty only affects men at the very highest weight levels.    

The Council on Size and Weight Discrimination (CSWD) on their website, provides the council’s position on weight discrimination in detail: Some of it follows:

Prospective employers refuse to hire large size people, especially in jobs where employees do physical work, or jobs where employees interact with the public.

CSWD position: employers can insist that their public representatives be well groomed, appropriately dressed, personable, and physically capable of doing the job well. But any criterion which excludes an entire group of people–African Americans, people with disabilities, or larger-than-average people–is unacceptable.

Large people are subject to harassment about their weight by their employers, are kept in jobs beneath their abilities, and are often demoted or fired because of stated or unstated weight prejudice.

CSWD position: the only valid criterion for job evaluation, raises, promotions, disciplinary action, demotion, or firing is job performance. If an employer thinks an employee’s size hinders their ability to do the job, it is incumbent on the employer to discuss this with the employee and make a determination, not to make a judgment about the person’s ability based on their size.

Physicians and other health care professionals often advise fat patients to lose weight no matter what their medical condition, whereas a thin person with the same condition would be given medicine or other medical treatment. Hospitals and other health care facilities and equipment (such as cat scans and MRIs) are often inaccessible to large people.

Large people are systematically denied health insurance and life insurance, or they are forced to pay higher premiums than those of average weight.

CSWD position: a person’s size does not determine their health or the healthfulness of their lifestyle.

Applicants are often turned down by educational institutions because of their size. In a famous discrimination case which went to the Supreme Court, a college made a nursing student sign a contract promising to lose weight or be expelled (the Court invalidated the contract).

The Council on Size and Weight Discrimination makes the following suggestions for dealing with instances of weight discrimination:

Start a file. Gather together all of your employment records, especially your

job evaluations. If the employer claims that your weight prevents you from

doing the job, you need to show that you have been performing all the

required duties.

Take notes. If a colleague, supervisor, or employer speaks to you about your

job performance, or about your weight or appearance, write down the date,

time, names of people present, and what was said to the best of your

recollection. The sooner you write it down, the more likely it is to be

accurate and credible.

Address the issue. Make an appointment with the appropriate person to talk

about the problem. Act polite, but be assertive. Do not act defensive. Do not

be confrontative. Describe the events, trends, statements, evaluations, or

actions that are making you feel that there is a problem. Ask the other

person whether your perception is accurate. If they say it is, then ask what

can be done to solve the problem.

If you think your size is the issue, but it has never been mentioned, ask

your employer directly if this is the problem. Again, do not act defensive.

Remember, the problem here is that your employer is prejudiced, not that

there is anything wrong with you.

If nothing can be resolved, inform your employer, politely, that you consider

this to be unfair treatment and that you intend to take steps to address it.

Look into and follow the employee grievance procedures for your company.

Contact your local Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office

(800-669-3362) and the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union

(ACLU).

The Council has a small list of attorneys who have dealt with size

discrimination cases, but if there is no one on the list near your area, ask

your local chapter of the American Bar Association (or a local attorney

referral service) to refer you to a lawyer who specializes in employment

discrimination. Go to www.abanet.org/referral/home.html

Read the books and articles listed in the Council’s bibliography on size

discrimination, including the summaries of major court cases. Make this and

all other information available to your attorney. Keep copies of everything

you give your attorney.

Even though there are very few laws and ordinances which prohibit size

discrimination, there have been many successful court cases against employers

who discriminate against their large-size employees. The Council is happy to

act as a consultant to individuals and attorneys involved in weight

discrimination cases, and asks that you keep us informed.