Why tall people earn more and have better jobs

A NEW study shows a few extra inches makes you more likely to land a great job, earn more money and get that promotion. So what can the Danny DeVitos of the world to do about it?

Undated- Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in Twins. - Movies film scene actor headshot

BAD news for the vertically challenged: a few extra inches makes you more likely to land a great job, earn more and get that promotion.

Tall people are even more likely to break out of a lowly office job and become entrepreneurs, research shows.

A new study from Ohio State University confirms what many reports have already claimed — that workers who score highly in the height department receive a “substantial premium” in their pay packet. A difference of four or five inches can mean up to a 15 per cent increase in wages, The Atlantic reported.

In his popular book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell wrote: “There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that height — particularly in men — does trigger a certain set of very positive, unconscious associations ... In the US population, about 14.5 per cent of all men are six feet or over. Among CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, that number is 58 per cent.”

He cited a study that found an inch in height was worth $789 a year in salary. Timothy Judge, one of the authors, pointed out that over a 30-year career, this could mean “hundreds of thousands of dollars of earnings advantage.”

A German study last month confirmed that taller people have better work and life satisfaction, higher socio-economic status and were more likely to be self-employed — and making more money from it.

So why does this happen? Many studies have concluded that tall people are socially dominant while short people are discriminated against, and seen as small and insignificant.

Gladwell says tall people are hired for top jobs because of an unconscious prejudice in which we “automatically associate leadership ability with imposing physical stature”.

But a 2006 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the US said the answer is more simple — tall people are just more intelligent. “Throughout childhood, taller children perform significantly better on cognitive tests,” the paper read.

A study by Edinburgh University last year also found a “significant genetic correlation” between height and IQ.

The latest study from Ohio said it is a combination of factors, and that the most important variable is nutrition. Another is attractiveness, which can boost earnings by up to 10 per cent.

It said that an extra two inches in height was the equivalent of growing up in a middle-class family instead of a lower-class one.

Time to buy some stilts.

Originally published as Why tall people earn more and have better jobs