Posted on 11/19/2004 1:48:50 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Being obese can affect more than your health, it can affect your livelihood, too.
Misty Watts had worked as a waitress for the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain for two and a half years last August when she says she was fired out of the blue for being overweight. Just three days earlier the widow, part-time college student, and mother of three was named "Employee of the Month" at the restaurant, but on the day she was terminated a visiting district manager told her she didn't fit the company's image.
"I asked him, 'Are you firing me because I'm fat?'" the 240-pound, 5-feet, 5-inch tall Hickory, North Carolina woman tells WebMD. "And he said, 'Let's just say it's because your shirt doesn't fit and it never will.' When my store manager asked if they could keep me and not hire anyone else with this image the response was, 'No, we have an image to uphold and we have to start now.'"
The Pound Penalty
Weight discrimination in the workplace is common, but the economic cost for individual workers of being obese is not well understood. In a newly published study, finance professors from Middle Tennessee State University sought to quantify this cost using analytical methods that controlled for other variables that have been shown to influence income.
The issue is of growing importance, as more and more Americans find themselves heavy enough to be considered obese. About one in three adults in the U.S. meet the standard, meaning they have a body mass index of 30 or more. There are now more obese adults in this country than cigarette smokers or drug users.
The MTSU researchers found that the economic cost of obesity, or the "pound penalty," as they called it, was much greater for women than for men. But both sexes experienced a persistent obesity-related wage penalty over the first two decades of their careers.
After controlling for other variables influencing income, obesity was found to lower a man's annual earnings by as much as 2.3% and a woman's by as much as 6.2%. The average reduction for women was around 4.5%, study researcher Charles L. Baum, PhD, tells WebMD. The findings were reported in the September issue of the journal Health Economics.
"Four and a half percent may not sound like a lot, but over the course of a career it can really add up," Baum says. "If you earn $50,000 on an annual basis, that is $2,250. If you multiply that over a 40-year career, that's almost $100,000."
The researchers attempted to identify other explanations for why overweight workers make less. In their analysis the discrepancy could not be explained by lower productivity or customer discrimination. But there was some evidence that obese employees were less likely to seek training to further their careers.
The findings echo those of an analysis combining 29 studies of employment discrimination compiled by Western Michigan University management professor Mark Roehling, PhD.
Roehling tells WebMD that weight appears to be more consistently associated with economic discrimination than any other factor, including race, gender, and age.
"The evidence suggests that weight has a stronger and more consistently negative impact on earnings than anything else," he says. "And the effect was consistently greater for women than for men."
Moving On
While Misty Watts' case seems particularly egregious, Ruby Tuesday continues to insist in press releases that she was not fired for being fat. But company spokesmen have not specified another reason and the 28-year-old mom says she was offered her job back after she told her story on ABC's Good Morning America in October.
She declined and now works at Shell's Bar-B-Q in Hickory, N.C.
"[Ruby Tuesday] keeps saying that my weight was not the reason, but you don't fire someone for cause three days after they are named "Employee of the Month," she says. "They say they can't say why for employee confidentiality reasons, but I went on national television and told them to tell the world why. They also said they would publicly apologize, but they didn't."
o_O
Jayzuz!
"Four and a half percent may not sound like a lot, but over the course of a career it can really add up," Baum says. "If you earn $50,000 on an annual basis, that is $2,250. If you multiply that over a 40-year career, that's almost $100,000."
...or roughly 2,556 chocolate sundays.
Lawsuit heaven. John Edwards is salivating right now, thinking of moving from fetuses to waitresses.
Send her over to Hooters.
"I asked him, 'Are you firing me because I'm fat?'" the 240-pound, 5-feet, 5-inch tall Hickory, North Carolina woman tells WebMD.
No. I’m firing you because you’re very very fat.
I believe the employer should be allowed to terminate at will, just as the employee hould be able to quit at will. Still, it's pretty darned difficult finding good help, people that show up on time, and do a good job, it seems silly to fire this lady.
Chain restaurants are used to high turn-over. They're designed around it.
That's exactly my take on it.
I think they should be able to fire her, but this was a stupid reason to do it.
I agree. If this woman was showing up and doing a good job, she's way ahead of most workers, fat or thin, so why can her? And since this woman (presumably) was fat-to-obese when she was hired, it does seem unethical to fire her for being fat.
But do they go out of their way to support it, by firing qualified workers?
The high turnover is a liability, not an asset.
next thing you know they will be requiring women with small breasts to get implants.
hopefully
that's funny.
I've actually given this subject some thought -- and have yet to reach a conclusion.
These are the questions I've come up with: If you design a business around high turnover in ways that mitigate the negative effects of that turnover, what do you sacrifice? And, do such systems serve to bring good employee work down to a lower level?
"....visiting district manager told her she didn't fit the company's image."
I think that will soon be former district manager. What a numb skull.
Some of you think an employeer should be able to fire an employee for any reason. Would you agree with firing someone because of their race? How about their religion? Would nation of origin work for you? Think you would fire someone because they were too slim? Do you think being too short or too tall would. Maybe too old?
I am sure she will sue and I imagine she will win as she should.
I presume they don't mind far customers.
Make that fat customers.
There is more stupidity in that article than I can shake a stick at.
Disturbing. . . I think the waitress should sue the restaurant. They normally serve crappy food anyways.
And no I'm not fat, I just think this blows.
A restaurant never, ever wants a fat waitress -- for obvious and very pragmatic reasons.
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