2023年经济学人 研究发现肥胖人士的工资更少（在线收听）

    Finance and economics

    财经版块

    Economies of scales

    体重秤经济

    The obesity pay gap is worse than previously thought.

    肥胖造成的工资差距比之前想象的更为严重。

    Obese people experience discrimination in many parts of their lives, and the workplace is no exception.

    肥胖人士在生活的许多方面都受到歧视，职场也不例外。

    Studies have long shown that obese workers, defined as those with a body-mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, earn significantly less than their slimmer counterparts.

    长期以来的研究表明，肥胖工作者（即身体质量指数为30及以上的人）的收入明显低于身材苗条的同侪。

    In America, several state and local governments are contemplating laws against this treatment.

    在美国，几个州政府和地方政府正在考虑立法反对这种歧视对待。

    On November 22nd, one such ban came into force in New York City.

    11月22日，这方面的一项禁令在纽约市生效。

    Yet the costs of weight discrimination may be even greater than previously thought.

    但体重歧视造成的代价可能比之前想象的还要大。

    “The overwhelming evidence,” wrote the Institute for Employment Studies, a British think-tank, in a recent report, “is that it is only women living with obesity who experience the obesity wage penalty.”

    “压倒性的证据表明，”英国智库就业研究所在最近的一份报告中写道，“只有肥胖的女性会经历肥胖带来的工资惩罚。”

    They were expressing a view that is widely aired in academic papers.

    他们表达的这一观点在学术论文中已得到了广泛讨论。

    To test it, The Economist has analysed data concerning 23,000 workers from the American Time Use Survey, conducted by the Bureau of Labour Statistics.

    为了验证这一点，《经济学人》分析了由劳工统计局进行的美国时间使用调查中得出的涉及23 000名工人的数据。

    Our number-crunching suggests that, in fact, being obese hurts the earnings of both women and men.

    我们的数据分析表明，事实上，女性和男性的收入都会因肥胖而受损。

    The data we analysed cover men and women aged between 25 and 54 and in full-time employment.

    我们分析的数据涵盖了25至54岁的全职工作的男性和女性。

    At an aggregate level, it is true that men’s BMIs are unrelated to their wages.

    从总体水平来看，男性的身体质量指数确实与他们的工资无关。

    But that changes for men with university degrees.

    但对于拥有大学学位的男性来说，情况发生了改变。

    For them, obesity is associated with a wage penalty of nearly 8%, even after accounting for the separate effects of age, race, graduate education and marital status.

    对这些男性来说，肥胖与近8%的工资惩罚有关，这是把年龄、种族、研究生教育和婚姻状况等因素的影响计算在内之后的结果。

    When we re-ran our analysis, using a different dataset that covers nearly 90,000 people, from the Department of Health and Human Services, we got similar results.

    当我们使用另一个数据集重新进行分析，我们得到了类似的结果，这个数据集涵盖了近9万人，数据来自美国卫生和公众服务部。

    The conclusion—that well-educated workers in particular are penalised for their weight—holds for both sexes.

    受过良好教育的工作者因体重而受到惩罚，这一结论对男女都适用。

    Moreover, the higher your level of education, the greater the penalty.

    此外，你的教育水平越高，受到的惩罚就越大。

    We found that obese men with a bachelor’s degree earn 5% less than their thinner colleagues, while those with a graduate degree earn 14% less.

    我们发现，拥有学士学位的肥胖男性的收入比身材较瘦的同事低5%，而拥有研究生学历的男性收入则低14%。

    Obese women, it is true, still have it worse: for them, the equivalent figures are 12% and 19%, respectively.

    肥胖女性的情况确实更糟：她们的相应数字分别为12%和19%。

    Your line of work makes a difference, too所处的行业也会产生影响。

    When we crunched the numbers for individual occupations and industries, we found the greatest disparities in high-skilled jobs.

    当我们分析个别职业和行业的数据时，我们发现高技能工作的差距最大。

    Obese workers in health care, for example, make 11% less than their slimmer colleagues; those in management roles make roughly 9% less, on average.

    例如，在医疗保健领域，肥胖工作者的收入比身材苗条的同事低11%，管理层肥胖工作者的收入平均要低约9%。

    In sectors such as construction and agriculture, meanwhile, obesity is actually associated with higher wages.

    与此同时，在建筑和农业等行业，肥胖实际上与更高的工资有关。

    These results suggest that the aggregate costs of wage discrimination borne by overweight workers in America are hefty.

    这些结果表明，美国肥胖工作者承受的工资歧视总成本是巨大的。

    Suppose you assume that obese women, but not men, face a wage penalty of 7% (the average across all such women in our sample) and that this is the same regardless of their level of education.

    假设肥胖女性，而非男性，无论她们的教育水平如何，都面临7%的工资惩罚(这是我们样本中所有肥胖女性的平均水平)。

    Then a back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that they bear a total cost of some $30bn a year.

    那么粗略的计算表明，她们每年承担的总成本约为300亿美元。

    But if you account for both the discrimination faced by men, and for the higher wage penalty experienced by the more educated (who also tend to earn more), the total cost to this enlarged group more than doubles, to $70bn per year.

    但如果把男性面临的歧视，以及受教育程度较高的人(他们往往挣得也更多)所遭受的更大的工资惩罚计算在内，那么这个扩大后的群体所承担的总成本就增加了一倍多，达到每年700亿美元。

    What can be done?

    我们可以做些什么呢？

    Several cities, such as San Francisco and Washington, DC, already ban discrimination on the basis of appearance.

    旧金山和华盛顿特区等几个城市已经禁止了基于外表的歧视。

    A handful of states—including Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Vermont—are considering similar bills.

    包括马萨诸塞州、纽约州、新泽西州和佛蒙特州在内的几个州也在考虑类似的法案。

    The ban New York City began to enforce on November 22nd prohibits weight-based discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation such as hotels and restaurants.

    纽约市于11月22日开始执行这项禁令，禁止在就业、住房和公共食宿（如酒店、餐馆）等方面因体重而歧视他人。

    Alas, it is unlikely to accomplish much.

    可惜这不太可能取得多大实效。

    When we restricted our analysis to workers in Michigan, where a similar ban has been in place for nearly 50 years, we found the obesity wage penalty to be no lower than for America as a whole.

    密歇根州的类似禁令已经实施了近50年，当我们仅分析密歇根州的工作者时，我们发现他们因肥胖所受的工资惩罚并不比美国的总体水平低多少。

    Outlawing prejudice is one thing.

    立法禁止偏见是一回事。

    Ironing it out of society is quite another.

    将偏见从社会中消除则是另一回事。