A handsome man can earn a fifth more than a plainer colleague (同事) but a beautiful woman is not paid a penny more than her average-looking colleague, new research has shown.
The study by senior economists (经济学家) found that being good-looking meant male workers could earn 22 percent more than average-looking colleagues. Researchers said good looks did not give women a similar advantage.
Andrew Leigh, the former economics professor at the Australian National University who co-authored the report, said: "Beauty can be a double-edged sword for women."
"Some people still believe good looks and intelligence (智慧) are incompatible (矛盾的) in women so a good-looking woman can't be that productive, but it doesn't affect men's pay."
He said that although he believed good-looking women may also earn more, the research did not support his theory.
The research found that handsome men in all jobs, from manual labour to highly-paid professional careers, can earn 22 percent more than their colleagues doing the same work.
Men with below-average looks face a battle in the office, with ugliness reducing a man's earnings by 26 percent compared to an average-looking worker.
Former male model Ian Mitchell, 28, who has a first class degree in history from Edinburgh University and now works for a cosmetics (化妆品) company, told the Sunday Times: "It gives you confidence, and I suspect people tend to warm to you more quickly."
The study, named Unpacking the Beauty Premium, was the largest exercise of its kind and repeated a survey from 1984 to see if the beauty premium had changed.
Leigh said the research showed people in the workplace were "lookist (以貌取人的) " and he hoped the findings would encourage employers to remove their prejudice(偏见).
