And the aesthetically gifted don’t just go further. They get where they going with more cash in their wallet.
No surprise then that the anonymous blogging billionaire Percy Walker picked up this piece of research carried out by Elon University which looks at the links between physical appearance and wages.
The basic relationship is well established – the beautiful do better – but what this paper wants to know is, if you were born with less than catwalk good looks, what control do you have over how others perceive you. Can you use grooming to boost your pay-check?
“Every day workers take time to shower, do their hair, select their clothes and get dressed. Some more than others,” authors Jayoti Das and Stephen DeLoach note. But are nature’s preeners wasting precious time, while the wash-and-go kids get to the office early and catch the boss’ eye? The assumption has been, says the paper, that such “non-market activities” are likely to reduce work effort and create disruptions. They are in effect a proxy for a lower level of job commitment.
But appearance is important. Try making it as a City banker whilst sporting brown shoes or a belt with your suit. And heaven forbid you should brave an experimental tuft of facial hair.
The researchers agree. Investing in your appearance could, they argue, signal other valued characteristics or traits, that a worker is well organised for example. And in terms of how you spend your time outside work, grooming is after all one of the few activities the results of which are always directly visible to your employer. It’s not just about your innate, immutable beauty; it’s what you do with it, runs the hypothesis.
Their conclusion is that amount of time spent grooming has a significant positive effect on wages and that the impact is far larger for men – the returns are nearly four times higher. That may, the study suggests, reflect the fact that women on average spend more time on their appearance in any case, so that the marginal effect of a bit more preening for a man is greater than that for a woman.
So book in for that haircut and break out the exfoliator. Your bonus depends on it.