Less earning potential?
(Episode 425; 6 minutes 13) Is there a relationship between your hair colour and how much you earn? Dr Geni Dechter, an economics lecturer at the Australian School of Business, studied the effect of physical appearance on earnings while she was worked at Rochester University in the United States.
Geni, who is a brunette, found that hair colour could impact wages by as much as 9 percent. It seems the notion of the dumb blonde was prevalent in the US at the time of the study. It’s covered in her recent paper “Physical Appearance and Earnings: the role of hair colour”.
The study was based on research in the US. I wonder if the same would apply in Australia today. Tell us your experiences in the Talkback section at the end of this post.
You might also find this paper interesting from Daniel Hamermesh at the University of Texas: “Dress for success – does primping pay?”
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
