Heavy White Females

[Rob Schaap]

>"It should be stressed, however, that the finding that
>weight lowers wages is not conclusive evidence of
>workplace discrimination," Cawley points out. "Another
>hypothesis also consistent with these findings is that
>heavier workers are less productive at work. It has
>repeatedly been found, for example, that obese workers
>are more likely to miss work due to illness.

Another hypothesis is that low incomes make American women heavy.  I
suspect this is true of American men, too.  Sitting at home watching telly,
expecting little from the future, losing faith in your own capacity to
change anything, and eating cheap TV food is very possibly a way many
people might react to being poor, tired and put upon.


>However,
>this explanation is complicated by the fact that the
>analysis finds no evidence that weight lowers wages
>for black women."

Another speculation: might the average black female wage be the lowest of
the cohorts in question?  If so, room for wages to fall might be
significantly less.

Or not?

Cheers,
Rob.