Over the years, a number of studies have highlighted the so-called “beauty premium”, whereby attractive people achieve greater career success than their plain-looking peers. The latest comes from Carnegie Mellon, which shows that attractive MBA graduates not only earn more but are also more likely to snag prestigious roles.

Indeed, the researchers found that attractive people earned a beauty premium of around 2.5% over 15 years. While this doesn’t sound like much, it works out at over $2,500 a year, with this growing to over $5,000 for the most attractive people.

A big boost

To put this into perspective, the gender pay gap works out at around $10,000, so it’s half as big. The study shows that the beauty advantages tend to grow over time, with beautiful people over 50% more likely to hold prestigious positions 15 years after graduating.

There are differences according to industry, however, with fields that require a lot of social interaction, such as consulting, generally showing the biggest boost to beautiful people. It’s less advantageous in STEM fields, such as engineering and software development.

“This study shows how appearance shapes not just the start of a career, but its trajectory over decades,” the researchers say. “These findings reveal a persistent and compounding effect of beauty in professional settings.”

After tracking over 43,000 MBA graduates, the researchers believe their findings are among the most comprehensive in their analysis of the role beauty plays in career outcomes.

“This research underscores how biases tied to physical appearance persist in shaping career outcomes, even for highly educated professionals,” the researchers conclude. “It’s a stark reminder that success is influenced not just by skills and qualifications but also by societal perceptions of beauty.”