Tall People Earn More

ayahner writes "Tall people earn considerably more money throughout their lives than their shorter co-workers, with each inch adding about $789 a year in pay, according to a new study. If this is true, I should make a killing! At 6'7" I tower over other developers. It's mostly a distraction, as I can see over even the highest cubes and if I stand just in the right spot, I can receive satellite transmissions. Saves on the cell phone bill. I'm going to go ask for a raise right now, if I can figure out how to work the printer..."

Comments

Re:Dubious Study

[indros13]

Actually, most scientists are fairly careful to control for all of the circumstances you mentioned. I've seen this information in several other places before, and they do control for those variables. I'm kind of surprised that everyone thinks this is crackpot science, given how height is as obviously a part of a "good-looks" package as attractiveness, and we all know that good looks gets all sorts of advantages.

For those doubting Thomases:

• A BBC story on the issue about a study tracking people born March 1958.
• 1. Full details of this research will appear in Harper, B. 'Beauty, Statute and the Labour Market: A British Cohort Study', Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 62, December 2000, pp773-802.
  2. The study sample of 11,000 people are members of the National Child Development Study. The NCDS cohort study tracks the lives of 17,733 people born in Britain in the first week of March 1958. They are now 42. They were last interviewed in 1991 when the sample had fallen to 11,407.
  Further information For further information, a copy of the full research article or to arrange an interview please contact Barry Harper (details below). London Guildhall University does not have an abbreviation. To avoid confusion with other organisations, please use only our full name. Thank you.