ABSTRACT
Obesity is rarely considered an issue in diversity programmes and training, yet evidence suggests that discrimination and prejudice against obese people remains common across healthcare and business. Some of the most important work has been done on the effect on salary of a person being obese. In examining the salaries and personal measurements of respondents to the 1984 National Lawyer Survey, they found that overweight and thin male lawyers were paid less than normal weight individuals. Weight is one of the most important determinants of attractiveness, but it is the ratio of height to weight which is thought to be most important. Healthcare workers have been reported to believe that obese people are less intelligent, less likely to have friends and more lazy than people of normal weight. Employers may feel they are justified in not recruiting obese people because of the ergonomic costs, raised sickness absence and greater healthcare costs.
