By February, the guilt of gorging on the local supermarket’s entire confectionary aisle over Christmas has usually passed. If you faced the New Year as fat as a small elephant, by now you’ve probably given up on dieting or exercise and have resigned yourself to another year of chubbiness. However, this could be an expensive mistake as research shows that if you’re fat, your salary is probably slim.

Fatter people pay for their expanded waistlines with lower wages than slimmer colleagues, a Europe-wide study of more than 40,000 people shows. Reported in Economics and Human Biology, the data showed a 10 per cent increase in body mass index (BMI) saw a 5.29 per cent reduction in earnings for men and a 3.49 per cent drop for women. So if you want to improve your chances of a payrise, is the solution to lose weight? Or does this report suggest that whilst it’s unacceptable to act in a racist or sexist manner in the workplace, ‘fattism’ is ok?

Unfortunately, although it would be nice to eat a chocolate cake and feel you’re taking a stand against workplace discrimination – sort of a lazy man’s version of standing on a picket line with an angrily worded placard – it isn’t quite that simple. Firstly, although this report sparked mournful accounts in various publications about how an employee felt discriminated against for being fat, proving this isn’t straightforward.

Writing in The Seattle Times, Jerry Large argued that the results confirmed that “people make generalizations about other folks based on size. Fat equals lazy, weak-willed and unattractive” (10 Dec 2006). Well, perhaps, but this isn’t the whole picture. As Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor of The Times points out, “the issue is fraught with difficulties. The most obvious is distinguishing cause from effect: does being overweight reduce earnings, or do lower earnings cause people to be overweight? Poorer people may have an unhealthier diet, or do less exercise, for example.”

Whether it’s true that your weight could literally crush your career hopes, the public’s response to these studies reveals a strong belief that ‘fattism’ is rife amongst UK organisations. As such, employers are increasingly anxious that the law courts are sharpening their claws in preparation for a surge of weight-related discrimination claims.

Law firm DWF says employers are beginning to seek advice on the legal implications of rejecting obese candidates or firing overweight employees. As a nation do we make employment decisions based upon a candidate’s weight?

Legally, it’s acceptable to hire according to whether an applicant is a size eight or an 18, unless the candidate can explain their obesity is due to a medical condition. However, once the applicant has been employed, fat suddenly becomes a legal minefield. Unless you can prove that the employee’s waistline damages their ability to do the job, you can’t fire for being fat.

In light of the messages being sent out by employment law, where does this issue leave employers? Given that the law is murky on the subject of ‘fat’ discrimination, is weight one of the few prejudices that is still widely tolerated or should it not even feature in the discrimination debate?

Ultimately, whether you feel incensed that weight discrimination goes relatively unnoticed against issues such as racism or sexism, the topic is certainly firmly in the public eye and employers cannot ignore it. Like it or not, HR may need to assess its approach to employees’ weight – but should we really have to?

By Sarah Fletcher