The Research On The Impact Of Appearance On Labor Wages

Based on the data of CLDS in 2016,this paper studies the effect of appearance on wage income of Chinese labor force.This paper focuses on the influence mechanism of appearance,that is,the direct effect of appearance on labor wage(appearance discrimination)is significant,or the indirect effect of social capital(confidence,opportunity,ability)caused by individual appearance difference on wage income is more significant.Through multiple linear regression analysis,this paper analyzed the different height,BMI and appearance characteristics.The wage difference between male and female labor force.Empirical analysis found that:(1)compared with the general level of appearance,men with high facial value can get a beauty premium;and there is a significant positive correlation between male height and wages.Men with height above the normal level earn 9% more wages,while those with short,thin and low facial value earn about 10%,24% and 7% less wages than the general level,respectively.Low-facial men did not show the "ugly penalty" effect through the increase of social capital and other abilities.However,the height and stature of female labor force have no significant impact on income.Low-value workers get lower wages,while high-value workers get higher wages than normal workers by about 7%.(2)After controlling individual characteristics: household registration,marriage,political outlook,age and other variables,the appearance of male and female labor force significantly reduces wage income.Social network and individual human capital(educational background,certificate,health level)have more significant impact on wage income.Social network and academic capital can make up for the defects of appearance.(3)In the labor market,the wage premium caused by appearance is relatively small,and the difference of individual wage is mainly caused by individual social capital,namely social network and human capital.Appearance discrimination has always existed in male groups,but with the intervention of other competence characteristics,the direct effect of appearance on the wages of sample labor force is not significant,and the "beauty premium" effect is not significant.In order to test the robustness of the model,this paper carries out the regression of industry property and unit property variables.The regression results of industry nature are not significant.The influence coefficient of social capital is still around 0.16 and height is about 0.1.That is to say,industry has no effect on reducing appearance discrimination.The results are consistent with the research hypothesis.It is further demonstrated that in the labor market,the influence of appearance discrimination on wage income decreases gradually with the accumulation of social capital.Low "beauty premium" is more indirect under the support of social capital to make wage income produce premium effect.The results show that:(1)in stateowned enterprises and Party and government organizations,the wage income of lean men is lower than that of men with other physical characteristics,while the lower the female wage income,the ugly penalty effect appears;(2)In state-owned enterprises and government organizations,the thinner the female wage income is,the lower the female wage income.)The higher the height,the higher the wage earned by men in the collective units,while the appearance of women in the collective units had no significant impact.(3)In private enterprises,the thinner the shorter the male's wage income is,the fatter the shorter the female's wage income is,but after adding variables such as social network and human capital,the influence of appearance characteristics is reduced to insignificant.(4)In social organizations,the appearance of male and female labor force has no significant impact on wages.Through,the empirical test of different types of units have proved again that there exists the problem of appearance discrimination in the existing labor market in China.The shorter the thinner the men and the lower-looking women will bear the ugly penalty effect,and the male will appear the phenomenon of height premium.Women are less discriminated against in appearance than men in the labor market.The accumulation of social capital can reduce the impact of appearance to a certain extent,but it can't completely eliminate the appearance discrimination in the market.Therefore,the influence mechanism of appearance on wage income in the labor market can indirectly affect wage income through the transmission of social capital.Through the accumulation of individual social capital,it has a more positive effect on the increase of wage income.