In ‘History of Beauty,’ Umberto Eco suggested that beauty’s power over others happens through subconscious instinct. Good looks compel powerful responses in others, a theory that has long held weight with economists who examine aesthetics and salary distribution. The beauty premium focuses on an unexplained phenomenon that seems to bring imbalance to the labor market. Classic ideas of beauty have been directly linked to earning potential.
Harvard economists, Mobius and Rosenblat, dug into the issue of looks and career in a 2006 study that aimed to determine whether confidence, performance or beauty governed employer hiring decisions. Their trials revealed that employers have greater professional confidence in women they consider attractive. The results were dramatic enough to raise the most impervious of eyebrows; the beauty premium governed a total of 55% of interview outcomes.
Doorley and Sierminskas were inspired to conduct a 2012 trial, which proved that wages are distributed according to the looks of both men and women. Naomi Woolfe may have focused on the myths of beauty, but in the corporate job market, professionals are unconsciously responding to attractiveness in an authentic and pervasive way. Those who are young and attractive command loftier salaries and more vibrant career paths. People with below average looks earn an average of 9% less, while those with above average looks earn 5% more than those with average appearances.
In today’s dwindling economy, it is no longer enough to participate in the job market using competence alone. Almost 8% of U.S. citizens were unemployed in January 2013. Eight million citizens were underemployed and the majority of employed citizens were dissatisfied with their salaries. The labor market has become fiercely competitive and age discrimination is rife. Where the majority of workers in their thirties take three months to find employment, most of those in their sixties remain in the job market for between 12 and eighteen months before finding work.
Job seekers are waking up to the facts about beauty and career and using them to gain career fulfillment. The cosmetic surgery industry has ballooned by 500% since 2007, with the majority of procedures targeting the pursuit of youthfulness. Cosmetic surgery has become a hidden resume attachment that improves career opportunities. In Western countries where interviewers need to avoid accusations of contravening the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, more candidates are having face-lifts to create the illusion of youthfulness.
Age discrimination is the only remaining legal bias and interviewees are gaining a competitive edge against younger applicants through cosmetic procedures that erase their sagging and wrinkles. To fall on the right side of the beauty bias, 13% of women and 10% of men would choose cosmetic surgery if they were certain it would give them a steeper climb to the top of the career ladder.
Hiring managers today are less reticent to admit that they consider attractiveness to be a valid factor when choosing staff. Most readily admit that beauty is placed higher in their selection criteria than education. Face-lifts that improve youthful contouring may be the magical factor that takes careers to new heights.