Body Mass Index and Self-Employment in South Korea

Abstract

This study assesses differential labour performance by body mass index (BMI), focusing on heterogeneity across three distinct employment statuses: unemployed, self-employed and salaried. Data were drawn from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study. The final sample included 15,180 person-year observations (9645 men and 5535 women) between 20 and 65 years of age. The findings show that (i) overweight/obese women are less likely to have salaried jobs than underweight/normal weight women, whereas overweight/obese men are more likely to be employed in both the salaried and self-employed sectors than underweight/normal men, (ii) overweight/obese women have lower wages only in permanent salaried jobs than underweight/normal weight women, whereas overweight/obese men earn higher wages only in salaried temporary jobs than underweight/normal weight women, (iii) overweight/obese women earn lower wages only in service, sales, semi-professional and blue-collar jobs in the salaried sector than underweight/normal weight women, whereas overweight/obese men have lower wages only in sales jobs in the self-employed sector than underweight/normal weight women. The statistically significant BMI penalty in labour market outcomes, which occurs only in the salaried sector for women, implies that there is an employers' distaste for workers with a high BMI status and that it is a plausible mechanism for job market penalty related to BMI status. Thus, heterogeneous job characteristics across and within salaried versus self-employed sectors need to be accounted for when assessing the impact of BMI status on labour market outcomes.

Impact of Obesity on Employment and Wages among Young Adults: Observational Study with Panel Data

“…It has been reported that obese people earn less, are less likely to be hired, or are more likely to remain unemployed [14,15]. Further studies also indicate that obese individuals are less likely to be sorted into jobs that have socially desirable work profiles, such as earning a high salary, positioning in a professional or semi-professional sector, and receiving benefits of high quality in both monetary and non-monetary aspects [16].…”

The Influence of Hypomania Symptoms on Income in Self-Employment

“…Household endowments could directly influence the labor market outcomes by influencing the willingness to be employed, nature of employment sought, and the effort put forth in employment activities (Hurst & Lusardi, 2004; Kochar, 1995). As height has been shown to influence income (Rietveld, Hessels, & van der Zwan, 2015) and weight and obesity levels have been shown to influence labor market outcomes (Han & Kim, 2016), we included these physiological measures in our controls. Similarly, as health insurance has recently been shown to impact self-employment outcomes, we included a dummy variable for whether the respondent had private health insurance (Gumus & Regan, 2015).…”

The bidirectional relationship of obesity and labor market status - Findings from a German prospective panel study

“…Laitinen et al reported a higher risk of obesity after longer periods of unemployment in women [ 3 ]. In a large Korean cross-sectional study, women with overweight or obesity showed a higher risk of unemployment than normal- or underweight women [ 13 ].…”