A New Survey Exposes Bias by Hiring Managers Against Overweight Candidates—Here’s How to Counter It

Weight discrimination may be institutionalized, impacting peoples’ long term-career prospects.

BY KIT EATON @KITEATON

Illustration: Getty Images

in an ideal world, job candidates would be evaluated solely on their qualifications and professional achievements, and no recruiter would factor in an applicant’s appearance or weight. While there are established legal protections against this form of discrimination, despite a significant weakening of DEI effort, the gap between spirit of the law and the practice of obeying it may be keeping your company from getting the best candidates. That’s reflected in a new study shows huge percentage of hiring managers admit they are be less likely to choose an overweight candidate. This is a good reason to audit your HR teams’ hiring habits, since it’s possible they’re overlooking excellent candidates.

The study of 1,000 U.S. hiring managers, from Washington-based weight loss program provider Sunlight, found that nearly one in five said they would discriminate against an overweight candidate. Fully 28 percent (over one in four) of hiring managers said that the weight of a candidate plays into their first impressions, and 14 percent said they’d given these job seekers “worse” job offers. Thought the survey didn’t specify, it’s easy to imagine recruiters offering lower salaries, or even recommending applicants for less important positions.

Perhaps unsurprisingly Sunlight’s survey found male hiring managers and “mid-career” managers are the worst offenders here. Data show 34 percent of male hiring managers admit to weight discrimination, compared to 18 percent of women, and for managers of all genders, the age group 35 to 49 (roughly equating to millennials and younger Gen-Xers) are the most discriminatory. 

There’s an industry-specific skew too: hiring managers in tech and software are most likely to not hire overweight staff, while retail and e-commerce managers, and consulting and professional services are much less likely to exhibit this bias. 

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Sunlight’s data also shows that weight discrimination continues through an overweight employee’s career. Nearly one in five hiring managers — 17 percent —said they’d given overweight employees smaller raises, and close to one in four believe that overweight staff are less likely to rise into executive or leadership roles in time. Sunlight also found that 16 percent of hiring managers say overweight staff earn less, on average, than workers who aren’t overweight. 

Why do managers feel this way? Sunlight found that 30 percent of hiring managers think overweight workers “lack self-discipline,” while 33 percent say they lack stamina. The “image” aspect of being overweight is also at play, with over three in 10 hiring managers saying they feel clients will take overweight staff less seriously. 

In a report on their data, Sunlight noted that hiring managers say it’s not just them, and that weight discrimination is a “company-wide problem.” Meanwhile, the report quoted Angela Tran, Sunlight’s chief medical advisor, who noted the groundless flaw behind this entrenched bias. “There’s no medical evidence that body weight predicts job performance or correlates with productivity, competence, leadership, or work quality,” she wrote.

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