1. Beauty pays
If we were to take a group of people and have a panel rate their looks on a scale of 1-5, each step above the lowest score is worth about 1% increase in pay. A very good looking person will make $230,000 more in paychecks over his career than a very homely person.
Please keep in mind that this is statistics and does not reflect individuals or exceptions. For complete details of the study:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... nomists-20
2. Height pays
For every inch above the average height, a person can earn $500-$1,000 more per year. Note that affects men more than women. If a man who is 2" above average height makes additional $2,000/year, a women will have to be 4" above average height to earn the same additional $2,000/year.
For complete details, please see Jounral of Applied Psychology, Vol 89, No.3 (brief:
http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/standing.aspx)
3. Being the first born pays
First borns are most likely to make 6-figure salaries, versus middle kids are most likely to hold entry-level positions paying $35,000/year or less. The youngest siblings are more likely to work in middle management positions.
See:
http://articles.marketwatch.com/2011-09 ... iddle-kids
4. Higher IQ pays
For every IQ point above average, a person is estimated to make $202 to $616 more per year:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... r-off.html
5. For women, being skinny pays. For men, being slightly chubby pays.
Women who are 25 lbs below average weight makes $15,500 more per year vs. women of average weight. Women who are 25 lbs above the average weight earn $13,800 less than the average.
Skinny men make $8,400 less than average, and those who are above average weight make more, but not men who are obese. For complete study details, please see here:
http://timothy-judge.com/Judge%20and%20 ... 02010).pdf
6. For a women, being bonde pays
A blonde women will earn 7% more than her colleges who are non-blondes, and marry husbands who make 6% more than the husbands of non-blondes.
http://www.news.com.au/business/worklif ... 5849822035
If you thought the above sucks, consider how lucky you are that you were not born disabled. In 2009 the Federal minim wage was $7.25/hr, yet disabled workers in Iowa were paid $0.60/hour for their work. When I was a consultant working in Minnesota, I saw disabled people being bused in to a plant to fill ammo boxes. They sat around and count xx rounds per box all day because that was the only job they could get. I'd be surprised if they were even paid minimum wage.
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsdisability.htm