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Source: Department of Health Policy, The George Washington University
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Dor, Avi
Ferguson, Christine
Tan, Ellen
Divine, Lucas
Palmer, Jo
Gender and Race Wage Gaps Attributable to Obesity
Research Report, Department of Health Policy, School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University, November 2011
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Health Policy, The George Washington University
Keyword(s): Gender Differences; Obesity; Racial Differences; Wage Gap; Wages; Weight

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Overview: Currently, two out of three Americans are overweight or obese. In less than 20 years, roughly half of the population will be obese. Furthermore, obesity costs $168.4 billion a year, a number which is projected to increase by $48-66 billion per year. The societal costs of obesity are clear and staggering and the individual costs are equally chilling for most of those who are obese – particularly for Hispanic men and Caucasian and Hispanic women.

In 2010, we released a report that looked, for the first time, at the per capita costs of obesity. Using existing literature, we estimated the annual incremental costs of obesity and overweight to the individual and found that the overall, tangible, annual costs of being obese are $4,879 for an obese woman and $2,646 for an obese man. The analysis showed that one of the most profound and easily documented effects of obesity is with respect to wages. This year, we are exploring those wage differentials more closely using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) wave years 2004 and 2008 to further quantify obesity-attributable wage gaps. The NLSY79 provides detailed information about earnings, education, employment status, employment characteristics, health, and household characteristics. The NLSY79 follows the same panel of participants over time. Given the longitudinal nature of the NLSY79, we were able to explore obesity-related wage gaps using two different years, one prerecession and one at the height of the recession. To our knowledge, no such previous analysis has been performed, nor have any formal studies explored the 2004 to 2008 wave of the NLSY for obesity-related wage gaps.

We found:
• Both men and women who were obese experienced lower wages compared to their normal weight counterparts.
• For both genders and all racial categories except Hispanic men, the wage differential narrowed between 2004 and 2008, despite the economy worsening.
• Caucasian women who are obese experienced a wage penalty in both 2004 and 2008, while Caucasian men only experienced a differential in 2004.
• Hispanic women who were obese experienced a wage differential in both 2004 and 2008, while Hispanic men who were obese only experienced a wage differential in 2008.
• In both years, wages for African-American men who were obese were higher than their normal weight counterparts, while for African-American women, wages were similar between those who were obese and those who were normal weight.

In sum, our analysis shows that most men and women who were obese suffered lower annual wages, and that Hispanic men, along with Hispanic and Caucasian women, experienced the most acute differences.

Bibliography Citation
Dor, Avi, Christine Ferguson, Ellen Tan, Lucas Divine and Jo Palmer. "Gender and Race Wage Gaps Attributable to Obesity." Research Report, Department of Health Policy, School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University, November 2011.