When the pretty work, do they always earn more, do better?

Over all, yes. In the jobs where looks actually improve prospects - entertainer, model, prostitute - an even bigger, yes.

Take the street hooker: the better looking ones earn, on average, 12% more than those deemed less so (variable such as services offered, etc, taken into account, of course). The higher-end escorts who are also above-average in looks earn even more than that.

And even when looks don't have to matter, they do. Among MBA grads examined in a small study, the better-looking men had higher starting salaries and faster earnings growth in their first ten years. For women, looks had little effect on their starting salaries, but did improve their earnings growth. Our author interprets this to mean, for women, there is a rising effect of beauty with age.



In the legal world, the specialties self-select (or people are offered entry level positions in) departments appropriate to appearance. The better looking grads disproportionately head to litigation while the decidedly bottom half of the looks-ladder head to tax law and the like. It would seem L.A. Law casting had it right.

Paraphrased from Beauty Pays.