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Tall People Earn More

Posted by michael on from the wait-till-we-can-gengineer-tallness dept.

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..."

5 of 661 comments (clear)

  1. Dubious Study by mopslik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm always doubtful about studies like this. While they claim that certain variables like weight, gender, etc. were controlled, I suspect there are other variables that come into play here. Did each participant have the same background? Training? Did they choose the same occupation? Do they live in the same area? Blah blah blah.

    This is likely one of those "research causes cancer in rats" conclusions.

    1. Re:Dubious Study by tmark · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Obviously *you* don't know that much about statistics yourself. You argue that "Correlation != causation". Where in the original post does is causation implied ? The study only claims to show that taller people earn more money, which is a statement purely about correlation, and which is a well known finding anyways.

  2. Re:Who Cares? by blitziod · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You may think bullshitter type positions...BUT the fact is that when you are negotiating your pay YOU ARE IN MARKETING for that brief moment. So if tall people do better in marketing then tall people in non marketing fields would make mroe too.

    --
    The only way to bust a doper--is when you yourself become a smoker!
  3. NBA players skew results by SassyDave · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I want to see the median pay increase, not the average. I bet NBA players account for 99% of the pay difference.

  4. Re:Dubious Study, not really... by dameron · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I saw a documentary once where women rated the "date-ability" of men they observed through a one way mirror. All the men were judged to be above average in appearance based on headshots alone.

    When viewed in context a taller than average men outranked the smaller men with remarkable consistency. One, identified as having an extensive criminal record, always outscored shorter men. To get the women to accept the shortest (around 5'3") bachelor as "date-able" the researchers had to say he was a doctor who loved to travel on his private jet all over the world and was independently wealthy.

    The question isn't whether or taller people are better workers who earn more money through merit, rather it's whether we're still tied to longstanding biological instinct when evaluating people, even in an business context.

    -dameron