Weight discrimination in the workplace is still an issue during hiring, reports a recent BLR poll. The poll results found that just over one-quarter of respondents had been influenced by an applicant's weight during the hiring process. For a Limited Time receive a
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The poll asked, "Has someone's weight ever influenced your decision on whether to hire him or her?" The responses are shown below and compared with results from a 2006 poll on the same question:
What employers said ... |
2006 |
2010 |
Yes |
25% |
26% |
Maybe unconsciously |
35% |
28% |
No |
40% |
46% |
In addition to the 26 percent of respondents who said they had been influenced by an applicant's weight, another 28 percent reported that they may have been influenced unconsciously. However, almost half of the respondents said they have not taken an applicant's weight into consideration during the hiring process.
Between 2006 and 2010 there were some changes—a slight increase in the respondents that said "no" and a slight decrease for “maybe unconsciously”—that could suggest that employers, and employees responsible for hiring workers, are more aware of the issues surrounding weight discrimination in the workplace.
While there is no federal law that bans weight discrimination, HR professionals should be careful of workplace issues concerning weight.
In a lawsuit that made national headlines, two women from Michigan sued Hooters, claiming they were fired for not being thin enough. Currently, Michigan is the only state in the nation that has a law that bans discrimination based on weight. The state’s civil rights act, the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act, prohibits discrimination based on height or weight among other biases.
While this case is state specific, employers across the nation should still be conscious of weight discrimination. EEOC guidelines point out that while obesity is not an impairment under the ADA, severe obesity (body weight more than 100% over the norm) is “clearly an impairment.” The guidelines also note that a person with obesity may have an “underlying or resultant physiological disorder, such as hypertension or a thyroid disorder” that might be a protected disability under the ADA.
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