http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 8/full#b13
This section seems relevant here:
The workplace is one sphere where overweight people may be vulnerable to discriminatory attitudes and fat bias. A number of studies have investigated weight-based discrimination in employment. The results point to prejudice, insensitivity, and inequity in work settings.
Experimental studies addressing stereotypic attitudes in employers suggest that overweight people may be at a substantial disadvantage even before the interview process begins. Experimental studies have investigated hiring decisions by manipulating perceptions of employee weight, either through written description or photograph. Participants (most often college students) are randomly assigned to a condition in which a fictional job applicant is described or pictured as overweight or average weight (but with identical résumés) and are asked to evaluate the applicant's qualifications.
An example is a study using written descriptions of hypothetical managers (12). Managers described as average weight were rated as significantly more desirable supervisors, and overweight managers were judged more harshly for undesirable behaviors (such as taking credit) than were average weight managers. Similarly, in a study by Klassen et al. (13), women students (N = 216) read employee summaries of nine fictitious women employees, varying in weight and in stereotypical descriptions associated with obesity and thinness. Participants indicated the most desire to work with thin targets and the least desire to work with obese targets, although participants did not rely on stereotypical perceptions of weight in recommending harsh discipline to employees.
A study of job applicants for sales and business positions reported that written descriptions of target applicants resulted in significantly more negative judgments for obese women than for non-obese women (14). Participants (N = 104) rated obese applicants as lacking self-discipline, having low supervisory potential, and having poor personal hygiene and professional appearance. In general, participants held these negative stereotypes for obese applicants for sales positions but not for business positions. Interestingly, the study's findings were not mirrored when photographs were used instead of written descriptions of weight. The authors proposed several confounding factors to explain this outcome, such as differing applicant information accompanying the photographs, and concluded that obese applicants remain vulnerable to negative evaluations because of their weight (14).
Several studies have manipulated applicant weight with videotapes. This was done over two decades ago by Larkin and Pines (15) in which participants (N = 120) viewed a video of a job applicant in a simulated hiring setting. The scenario involved an applicant completing written screening tests for work requiring logical analysis and eye-hand coordination. Overweight applicants were significantly less likely to be recommended for hiring than average-weight applicants, and overweight applicants were judged as significantly less neat, productive, ambitious, disciplined, and determined (15). Another study using a simulated hiring interview for a receptionist position found that the obese applicant was less likely to be hired than the non-obese applicant (16). This study was able to rule out the extraneous factor of facial attractiveness by masking the faces of both applicants.
A more recent and impressive study used videotaped mock interviews with the same professional actors acting as job applicants for computer and sales positions in which weight was manipulated with theatrical prostheses (17). Subjects (N = 320) indicated that employment bias was much greater for obese candidates than for average-weight applicants; the bias was more apparent for women than for men. There was also a significant effect reported for job type; obese applicants were more likely to be recommended for a systems analyst position than for a sales position (17).
Other evidence also demonstrates employer perceptions of obese persons as unfit in public sales positions and more appropriate for telephone sales involving little face-to-face contact (18) (19). Jasper and Klassen (20) instructed participants (N = 135) to evaluate a hypothetical salesperson's résumé that included a written manipulation of the employee's weight. Obesity led to more negative impressions of the applicant and made the applicant significantly less desirable to work with. Participants who viewed the obese applicant description said directly that the obesity led to their judgments.
Excess weight may be especially disadvantageous in some settings. In a recent study of hiring preferences of overweight physical educators, most hiring personnel sampled (N = 85) reported that being 10 to 20 pounds overweight would handicap an applicant, regardless of qualifications (21). The authors concluded, “our hope is that these findings may serve to motivate some of these individuals to improve their health behaviors and in turn become better professional role models” (21).
Inequity in Wages, Promotions, and Employment Termination
A comprehensive literature review by Roehling (22) summarizes numerous work-related stereotypes reported in over a dozen laboratory studies. Overweight employees are assumed to lack self-discipline, be lazy, less conscientious, less competent, sloppy, disagreeable, and emotionally unstable. Obese employees are also believed to think slower, have poorer attendance records, and be poor role models (23). These stereotypes could affect wages, promotion, and termination.
There is evidence of a significant wage penalty for obese employees. This takes several forms: lower wages of obese employers for the same job performed by non-obese counterparts, fewer obese employees being hired in high-level positions, and denial of promotions to obese employees. A study of over 2000 women and men (18 years of age and older) reported that obesity lowered wage growth rates by nearly 6% in 1982 to 1985 (24).
Although both obese men and women face wage-related obstacles, they experience discrimination in different ways. An analysis from the National Longitudinal Survey Youth Cohort examined earnings in over 8000 men and women 18 to 25 years old and reported that obese women earned 12% less than non-obese women (25). Like studies to follow, this investigation indicated that the economic penalty of obesity seems to be specific to women. More recently, research based on earnings of 7000 men and women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth indicated that women face a significant wage penalty for obesity and that obese women are much more likely than thin women to hold low-paying jobs (26). Another longitudinal study following young adults over 8 years found that overweight women earned over $6000 less than non-obese women (26). Gortmaker et al. (27) and Stunkard and Sorensen (4) attribute lower wages to social bias and discrimination. Obese men do not face a similar wage penalty but are under-represented and paid less than non-obese men in managerial and professional occupations and are over-represented in transportation occupations, suggesting that obese men engage in occupational sorting to counteract a wage penalty (26).
Experimental research indicates that obese employees are rated to have lower promotion prospects than average weight counterparts (28). A recent study instructed supervisors and managers (N = 168) to evaluate the promotion potential of a hypothetical employee in a manufacturing company with one of eight disabilities or health problems, including obesity, poor vision, depression, colon cancer, diabetes, arm amputation, facial burns, or no disability (29). The obese candidate received lower promotion recommendations (despite identical qualifications) than a nondisabled peer and was rated to be less accepted by subordinates than the other promotion candidates..
Short version: Being obese is a significant professional disadvantage. Moreso for women.
You can say so, no offense taken. Economics definitely stirs strong and opposite emotions to a significant extent.