A new Vanderbilt study finds that skin tone and height directly affect how much money legal immigrants can earn.
Professor Joni Hersch studied data collected in a federal survey of new immigrants in 2003. Her research shows that those with the darkest skin tones earn 8 to 15 percent less than their lighter-skinned peers.
Hersch had thought that darker skinned immigrants may have a harder time getting an education in their home country, or that those people have darker skin because they already have lower wage, outdoor jobs. But she says those hypotheses haven’t held up against the data.
“Skin color has an independent effect on earnings, in addition to the effects of race and ethnicity and English language proficiency and a vast array of work-related characteristics that legitimately explain differences in earnings.”
Hersch also found that height makes a difference. According to the study, every inch of height adds an additional 1 percent in average wages.
The findings will be presented next month at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM