ABSTRACT

It has previously been reported that an individual’s body mass index (BMI) contemporaneously penalizes wages for women, but has no effect and sometimes rewards wages for men. In young adults, we estimate the association of BMI status with initial wages to assess whether initial BMI at the beginning of an individual’s career affects initial and later earnings. We pooled data from 388 men and 305 women, aged 20–40 years, with BMI information for the first year of employment, using the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study. A labor market penalty for a higher BMI among women was found only for overweight or obese segments, particularly those with relatively higher monthly wages. Meanwhile, a higher BMI in underweight or normal weight segments could reward employment probability for women and monthly wages for men. Such rewards of relatively higher monthly wages were also estimated for men in the overweight segment. Our findings suggest discrimination as one factor penalizing higher BMI in the labor market.

抽象的

以前有报道说，一个人的身体质量指数（BMI）同时惩罚女性的工资，但没有效果，有时奖励男性的工资。在年轻人中，我们估计BMI身份与初始工资之间的关系，以评估个人职业生涯初期的初始BMI是否会影响初始和以后的收入。我们使用《韩国劳动和收入调查小组研究》汇总了年龄在20至40岁之间的388名男性和305名女性的数据，并提供了第一年的BMI信息。仅在超重或肥胖人群中，特别是在那些月工资较高的人群中，发现劳动力市场中妇女的BMI较高。同时，体重不足或正常体重人群中较高的BMI可以奖励女性的就业机会和男性的月工资。在超重人群中，男性的月薪也相对较高。我们的发现表明歧视是惩罚劳动力市场中较高BMI的因素之一。