Legal discrimination against the obese affects women, their finances, their retirement

Employers don't generally choose heavier employees to work in front-facing positions or to rise to higher executive levels. They also tend to avoid workers with health conditions that can drive up the cost of any coverage they may provide to employees—whether it's legal or not. (Photo: Shutterstock)

It's not the only battle women have to fight, and it's shared by men, although to a lesser extent: discrimination against obese workers.

It affects the jobs they're offered, promotions denied,  financial circumstances, and, of course, retirement preparedness. And it has far-reaching implications. since according to the CDC, over 42% of adults aged 40-59 and over 35% of adults aged 20-39 are obese.

Employers don't generally choose heavier employees to work in front-facing positions or to rise to higher executive levels. They also tend to avoid workers with health conditions that can drive up the cost of any coverage they may provide to employees—whether it's legal or not. And even if obese people are hired, their condition is a stigma.

Not that there haven't been court cases—even a judge in Westchester County, New York, is suing under the Americans with Disabilities Act over allegations that court officials discriminated against her because of her weight and other ailments.

Weight discrimination has been identified, studied and documented in academic and scientific research. It's a global problem for which few countries have an answer.

According to an article published by the national non-profit group Obesity Action, obese women are paid an average of 6 percent less than their thinner sisters, while overweight men are subject to half that penalty — collecting 3 percent less than men whose weight is considered “normal.”

Yet being overweight, although it can add to or complicate existing health problems, is often a problem in itself that has nothing to do with diet or will power or any of the other stereotypical causes. In fact, Obesity Action refers to obesity as a disease.

Women already make less than men. That affects their ability to support a household, pay for health insurance and save for retirement.

Not only that, but people who make less money have less to spend on the kind of food that can support better health, and less to spend on housing, becoming more likely to live in “food deserts” in which fresh fruits and vegetables are not available, forcing them to rely on processed and fast foods that exacerbate the weight problem.

If Republican efforts to do away with the ACA provision requiring insurers to offer coverage despite preexisting conditions are successful, that will make it harder for obese women to get health insurance—something that can shorten their lives beyond what the extra weight and any attendant health conditions may already do.

In most states, it's not illegal to discriminate based on weight. In Michigan, however, the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on many factors including height and weight.

Some cities have put into place laws against discriminating by appearance, according to the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA). It lists, among others, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Urbana, Illinois and Madison, Wisconsin as places that prohibit weight discrimination.

Still, as a Huffington Post piece on weight discrimination notes, this is one of the last bastions of mostly-legal discrimination.

It even can affect whom we vote for: The piece cites an experiment described in the journal Obesity in 2010, in which “participants [told] to look at photographs of hypothetical political candidates and gauge them on a range of characteristics, including likability and competence … found that obese female candidates scored worse than ones who were not obese but that obese male candidates scored better.”