Bias in the workplace goes beyond race, sex

White men with bachelor’s degrees earn about $14,000 more per year than anyone else with the same level of education.

Not surprised? Try this: One inch of a person’s height is worth about $789 a year, and good-looking people make 5 percent more than plainer folk.

Four years of college is nothing to sneeze at. But in the real world, something other than your résumé might affect how far you go.

In a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau in March, black men with a bachelor’s degree made a yearly average of $45,635. Asian and Hispanic men earned $52,508 and $49,298, respectively.

White men made $66,390.

Women earned less than their male counterparts, with a twist: White women averaged less than black and Asian women.

The Census Bureau declined to offer an interpretation for its data.

Barbara Anderson, a lecturer in UNC’s Department of African and Afro-American Studies, expressed doubt about the census’s finding that minority women earn more than white women.

But she suggested that hiring incentives for minority women could be one explanation if the gap existed.

“Where discrepancies often develop is in promotion and raise patterns, which certainly give (whites) clear advantages,” Anderson wrote in an e-mail.

Marcia Harris, director of University Career Services, pointed out that the report was a study of the general population and that the discrepancies “are not reflected in our numbers for new graduates” of the University.

“Our population is a pretty homogeneous group, with a high-quality education,” she said.

Harris acknowledged that an initial equality in salaries might fade away later down the career path, saying, “Most employers are more open-minded at the very beginning.”

Students realize race and gender might affect their chances in the workplace, but they say they won’t let it drag them down.

Ron Anthony, a senior public relations major, said he knows racism is still a problem from personal experience.

“All I can do right now is make the necessary contacts I need to get beyond that,” he said. “Then, when I’m in an upper-level position, I can give back to my community.”

Christine Chung, a senior biology major, said she expects to run into preconceptions about both Asian Americans and women in science.

Fighting stereotypes such as “unsociable,” “nerdy” and “unattractive” will be a balancing act between “doing what I can get away with and being taken seriously at the same time,” she said.

The correlation among race, gender and success has been debated widely and at length in society. But some researchers say they’ve identified more factors at play.

Height clearly matters in the context of workplace success, according to a 2004 study by Timothy Judge, a professor at the University of Florida, and Daniel Cable, a professor in the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC.

“An individual who is (6 feet) tall would be predicted to earn almost $166,000 more across a 30-year career than an individual who is (5 feet 5 inches) tall,” the authors wrote. The height effect was pronounced in areas such as sales and management, where persuasion and negotiation are integral parts of the job.

Obesity might also weigh in on success. At least two independent studies found a significant “weight factor” for white women, according to the April issue of The Regional Economist, a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The article also noted that in both cases, black men were the only group in which heavier people tended to earn more.

For white women, a weight difference of about 64 pounds coincided with a 9 percent difference in income — equivalent to “roughly 1 and a half years of education or three years of work experience,” according to recent research by John Cawley, a professor at Cornell University.

Weight affects white women’s self-esteem more than it affects women of other races, Cawley’s study states.

Beauty is a nebulous concept, but it also might have real-world consequences. In her book “Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty,” Nancy Etcoff of Harvard Medical School describes lookism as a “silent” form of discrimination for both sexes.

Contrary to popular lore, a December 1994 article in American Economic Review found that appearance had a slightly greater impact on men’s earnings.

In terms of income, the prize for good looks is 5 percent, and the penalty for unattractiveness is 7 percent to 9 percent, according to the study.

For women, beauty is a double-edged sword.

“A good-looking woman with high career aspirations may be penalized for her looks because she is assumed to be ‘too feminine’ to do a high-powered job efficiently,” Etcoff wrote in her book.

Sean Marimpietri, a senior linguistics and anthropology major, said he expects the importance of looks to depend on the type of job.

He said he might have experienced lookism at career fairs.

“I wish they’d listen to my words and not my clothes,” he said.

Marimpietri appears to consider race and gender bigger factors, calling discrimination a “sad truth.”

While he himself is “of a type who won’t be discriminated against,” he said he won’t write it off as someone else’s problem.

“I can have a watchdog effect. … I’ll be vigilant about it.”

Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.