Personal Injury Law

Better Looks = More Money? For Lawyers?

By John A. Day

The Economist reports about a new study that links physical appearance and income.

The article says that " a series of surveys in the United States and Canada [show]  that when all other things are taken into account, ugly people earn less than average incomes, while beautiful people earn more than the average. The ugliness “penalty” for men was -9% while the beauty premium was +5%. For women, perhaps surprisingly considering popular prejudices about the sexes, the effect was less: the ugliness penalty was -6% while the beauty premium was +4%."

But there is more:  "The difference also applies within professions. Dr Hamermesh [the author of the study] looked at the careers of members of a particular (though discreetly anonymous) American law school. He found that those rated attractive on the basis of their graduation photographs went on to earn higher salaries than their less well-favoured colleagues. Moreover, lawyers in private practice tended to be better looking than those working in government departments."

Read the entire article here.   

Tonight I intend to grab a calculator and my latest Social Security Administration lifetime earnings statement and try to figure out how much my appearance has cost me over the last 40 years.  

Anybody know if there is a tax deduction I can take for this loss?

Full post as published by Day on Torts on January 03, 2008 (boomark / email).