You'd be forgiven for thinking that your chances of promotion or that juicy pay rise you've been after would stem from your intelligence and workplace performance.Sadly, this is apparently not the case. According to the last research, it's your good looks that will put you on the up and up.
A study of 4,000 young men and women, conducted by Yale University in the US, the workplace hotties can expect to earn up to 10 per cent more than the Ugly Bettys.
Each of the volunteers were judged as either average, very attractive or unattractive by researcher Jason Fletcher. Each was then asked to disclose their salary before sitting an IQ test.
While a 14-point increase on the IQ score meant a 3 to 6 per cent pay rise, the attractive participants found their pay packet boosted by 5 to 10 per cent.
It may not seem much, but applied to the average salary of £25,000, that's a difference of £2,500 a year.
We can hear you gasping as you read.
As the journal Economics Letters reports, it means that for a plainer person to be paid the same as a very attractive one, they would have to be 40 per cent brighter.
One theory is that attractiveness breeds confidence, enabling the self-assured to less coy when it comes to asking for a pay rise.
But whatever the reason, it seems hard to believe that, in this day and age, a 'Plain Jane penalty' even exists.
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