WHEN two security guards in Dalian
in north-east China got their first month’s pay packet earlier this year, they
questioned why each received different amounts for identical work. The company
responded that one man was 5cm taller than his peer. Workers over 180cm earn
more, they said, because bigger guards make people feel safer.
Stature is often a desirable
attribute of guards, but in China height requirements are routinely specified
for jobs which seem to have no need of them. To study tourism and hotel
management at Huaqiao University in Fujian province, men topping 170cm and
women over 158cm are favoured. A post as a female cleaner in Beijing is
advertised to women of at least 162cm. Many companies are less explicit about
such demands than they used to be, but candidates often list height (and
weight) on their curricula vitae.
The height premium is most
pronounced for women, according to a study from Huazhong University of Science
and Technology. It found that each centimeter above the mean adds 1.5-2.2% to a
woman’s salary, particularly among middle- and high-wage earners. A group at
China University of Political Science and Law is working on a draft law against
employment discrimination for height and other physical characteristics.
Chinese are rising above such
constraints, however. A 45-year-old man in China today is around 5cm taller
than 30 years ago, according to the RAND Corporation, a think-tank
Greater heights mostly reflect
greater incomes. Richer people tend to eat more and live in cleaner, better
homes. Meat consumption per person has increased more than fourfold since 1980.
Infant mortality is less than a tenth of what it was 60 years ago. Household
size has also helped. Historically people from big families have been shorter
(not just in China) because food supplies must stretch further. In China the
birth rate fell sharply from the 1970s nationwide.
But there are differences across the
country which reflect the uneven benefits of the economic boom.
Eighteen-year-olds from the richest cities are on average 7-8cm taller than
those from the poorest ones. The height gap between prosperous and impoverished
rural areas is similar.
Employers’ preference for high staff
exacerbates that inequality. They should grow up.
