Woman Explains How She Increased Her Salary By $100K In 3 Years — But Research Shows It Would Have The Opposite Effect For Men
It's purely rooted in discrimination.
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A | Shutterstock Doctors often encourage their patients to stick to a balanced diet and consistent exercise routine to maintain what is considered a healthy weight.
However, they never advise you that maintaining a healthy weight may just get you a promotion at work — most of us would never even think that the two were connected!
Research has heartbreakingly shown otherwise, and it is not an issue that male employees must be concerned about.
A woman revealed that her salary increased by $100K in 3 years after she lost 140 pounds.
In a TikTok video that has been viewed over 90,000 times, Amanda Leigh, who offers advice on career and finances, unveiled the reason she bumped up her salary by $100K in just three years.
According to Amanda, her raise had nothing to do with her work ethic or performance. It all had to do with her physical appearance.
She sarcastically shared that all she had to do to increase her salary was lose 140 pounds.
Research has shown that weight discrimination exclusively impacts women in the workforce, and it is directly correlated to their earning potential.
“We need to talk about weight discrimination and how it can impact salaries. Did you know that for every 10% increase in a woman’s weight, there is a 6% decrease in her income?” Amanda wrote in the caption of her video.
“Overweight women earn on average $9,000 less than their average weight counterparts. While obese women earn $19,000 less than the average weight female counterpart.”
Amanda’s claims, unfortunately, have some truth to them.
We already know that the gender pay gap exists, with women being paid nearly 22% less than their male co-workers. However, research has shown that a woman’s weight can also negatively impact her salary.
Research by Jennifer Shinall, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School, found that a weight gain of just 13 pounds in women cost them a $9,000 hit in their annual salary.
“I am somebody of what you would call a ‘normal’ BMI, but even when I had minor weight fluctuations of maybe 15 or 20 pounds, I saw myself being passed over for higher visibility projects and client interactions,” career coach Elizabeth Pearson told HerMoney.
“Then once I had lost that 20 or 25 pounds, all of a sudden, I’m being promoted.”
As women age, the correlation between weight and earning potential only worsens.
A report from the National Institute of Health uncovered that the financial net worth of moderately to severely obese women ages 51 to 61 was over 40% lower than that of their average-weight peers.
While women face financial punishments for their weight, men are rewarded for it.
Some studies indicate that white males who are overweight actually earn more and that weight bias only appears to exist against women.
"It's very disturbing that weight bias is increasing as the number of people who are experiencing it are also increasing," Tessa Charlesworth, a research fellow in psychology at Harvard University, told NPR.
Employees can even be fired due to their weight since they are not considered a protected class by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
What many people cannot seem to grasp is the fact that as we get older, our bodies experience significant changes, weight gain included. However, it does not mean we are unhealthy, less competent, or less productive at our jobs.
Earning potential should have nothing to do with physical appearance and everything to do with job skill and work ethic.
Unless you are actually paid to look a particular way, the notion that women aren't just competing with men for equal pay but also competing with each other based on physical appearance is demoralizing.
antoniodiaz | Shutterstock
Imagine if employers focused on building an inclusive environment that hires, promotes, and pays people based on the quality of their work. Job satisfaction would go up, and the quality of the work would as well.
Seems like employers are hurting themselves in an effort to maintain some antiquated gender bias that, of course, has no impact on working men.
Most of us are taught as young as kindergarten that people come in all shapes and sizes. As employed adults, we should already know how to treat everyone fairly without bringing weight into the equation.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.