ECONOMIC BEAUTY ADVANTAGE

Few will argue over the perceived advantage of being attractive and the seemingly endless perks that come along with a nice body and beautiful face. Models and actors are often held up as the fundamental beauty ideal, with their photographs adorning magazines that greet shoppers as they approach the cashier. However, there’s more to beauty than press and prestige. More and more, research (Hamermesh & Biddle, 1994; Hamermesh, Meng, & Zhuang, 2001; Biddle & Hamermesh, 1998) has pointed to an increasing gap between the salaries of attractive workers in certain industries when compared to their less attractive co-workers. While one would expect looks to play a major role in careers such as acting and modeling, the evidence indicates that many other occupations face the same sort of visual scrutiny, often resulting in higher salaries and more rapid promotion for those endowed with above-average looks.