February 9, 2007 | Posted By Diane Pfadenhauer | print this article

Skin Color Affects Hiring

According to a recent article in USA Today, skin color can affect salaries.  According to the article a  Vanderbilt University professor studied a government survey of 2,084 legal immigrants to the United States from around the world and found that those with the lightest skin earned an average of 8% to 15% more than similar immigrants with much darker skin.  Additional findings include:

  • being one shade lighter has about the same effect as having an additional year of education.
  • taller immigrants earn more than shorter ones, with an extra inch of height associated with a 1% increase in income
  • the skin-color advantage was not due to preferential treatment for light-skinned people in their country of origin. The bias occurs in the U.S.
According to the study and others mentioned in the article, "whiteness" continues to be a preference in the United States that apparently goes beyond race.