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Ladies, are you feeling bad about those extra five pounds? This might just make you feel worse. (Sorry!)

According to a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology, women who are “very thin” earn nearly $22,000 more than their “average weight counterparts.” The study was conducted by Timothy A. Judge from the University of Florida and Daniel M. Cable, from the London Business School, who examined the relationship between income and weight in men and women.

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And not only are women earning less if they are of average weight, they are actually punished if they are overweight; Forbes reports that “‘Heavy’ and ‘Very Heavy’ women lost over $9,000 and almost $19,000, respectively, than their average weight counterparts.”

Sadly (but not surprisingly), gaining weight seems to have a harsher impact on women’s income than it does on men’s. The study showed that when men gain weight, their paychecks don’t suffer the same way women’s do. And of course, you can’t forget that men were likely already earning more to begin with. So ladies, even if you’ve worked to close that gender wage gap, there’s also now the gender and weight wage gap. We wish we could make some snarky jokes about this, but frankly, we’re just too depressed at the moment. (via Forbes)

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