Being skinny can still equate to greater career success due to employer weight bias in hiring.
A new study finds that women who used GLP-1 weight-loss medications like Ozempic and Wegovy were significantly more likely to secure employment than women who wanted the drugs but had not taken them, reports Fast Company.
“The estimates show that GLP-1 weight loss changes outcomes on precisely the margins where visible body weight should affect first impressions,” Diamond wrote in the paper.
The findings suggest that first impressions had a significant impact on the likelihood that a female job seeker would secure employment. On the other hand, women who already had jobs did not experience meaningful increases in earnings, hours worked, or career mobility after starting the medications.
“What does not change for women is equally informative,” Diamond wrote. “The arrangements that do not respond are the ones already in place, where any first impression occurred long ago and where weight is one characteristic embedded in a much richer stock of information.”
Beyond employment, single women taking GLP-1 medications were 29% more likely to get married or move in with a partner within 18 months. Likewise, women already in committed relationships saw little change in their relationship status.
The findings align with years of research documenting weight bias in hiring. Previous studies have shown that workers with obesity are often perceived as less motivated or less productive, despite no evidence supporting those assumptions.
Diamond, however, cautioned that the paper has not yet been peer-reviewed and does not prove that employers are directly discriminating against applicants based on weight. Other factors—including improved physical health or increased confidence following weight loss—could also contribute to better employment outcomes. However, the study found those explanations accounted for only part of the observed effect, reports Business Insider.
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Source: Black Enterprise
