I recently ran across “Taller People Earn More Money” (written by Robert Roy Britt, the Editorial Director at LiveScience.com) and experienced a bit of déjà vu, as that has been quite well known for a long time.
For example, the article mentions that:
“In more than a century, no U.S. president has been below average height (the last one was William McKinley, at 5 feet 7 inches).”
I can recall the Wall Street Journal having done a “human interest” story back during the McGovern (who???) presidential campaign in 1972 which recounted the “tale of the tape”. Amongst other things, the story included what portion of the time the taller candidate won the presidential election, and the results were hugely lopsided in favor of the taller candidate.
I’ve seen several other reports since then which have also pointed out correlations between height and success (financial and romantic). So that dynamic is hardly a recent discovery.
The author goes on to mention (among other things) that:
“Height was found to be more important than gender in determining income (though that claim is debatable, depending on how you analyze the gender salary gap) and its significance doesn’t decline with age.”
Depending on how you analyze the gender salary gap? Indeed! The “gender salary gap” is a research area that seems to incorporate an unusually large dollop of ideology (such that the result you get is likely to be heavily influenced by the philosophical bent of the organization which funded the study).
For a scholarly explanation of how that gap arises, the best explanation that we’ve seen is from noted author Warren Farrell in his book “Why Men Earn More”.
It’s the choices women make (which in turn may reflect the fact that many women are not the primary breadwinner in their family and therefore have the luxury of choosing more pleasant – albeit less lucrative – career options if they so wish).
To put it differently, at least some portion of women don’t have to have a high-stress / high-pay job themselves to live the good life. They have “other means” at their disposal.
And just what are
those other means?
After all, women may end up with only, say $0.72 per $1.00 earned by men (who are given far fewer choices), but women end up spending about 80% of the total disposable income earned by both genders. A quick visit to the local mall will confirm this … take a look at what proportion of the mall’s square footage sells items more likely to appeal to female shoppers versus what proportion sells items more likely to appeal to male shoppers.
Let’s do the math: if men make 58% of the total income earned by both genders but women spend 80% of it, it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out the game … or which gender is getting the better deal. After all, which would you prefer?
- Me working hard to make lots of money but you getting to spend that money? Or
- You working your butt off to make lots of money but then me getting to spend it?
That one’s a no-brainer … spending is a lot more fun than earning, especially if you can do the former without having to do the latter. That’s one reason why shopping is most women’s favorite pastime … and why most women will be more attracted to men who are prosperous.
So … do tall guys have advantages in life? Compared to short guys, absolutely. Is that fair? Of course not … but who ever said that life was fair?
But interestingly enough, there’s an analogous dynamic that comes into play when studying female compensation patterns: “fat women earn less than slim women”.
At first glance, it would seem a better deal to be discriminated against for being fat rather than for being short, since in theory some people do manage to lose weight. However, the percentage of fat people of either gender who manage to lose a lot of weight (and then keep it off for many years) is only a few percentage points, so it may not be much consolation to be a fat woman rather than a short man.
Why shortness or fatness should matter is subject to conjecture, of course. But it does seem that size matters in life. C’est la vie.
Stay tuned,
-Mack Doppler
