--- title: Well Groomed Women Earn More, Study Says description: Researchers found that "attractive individuals"—both men and women—earn about 20% more than people who are only of "average attractiveness." canonical: https://time.com/4341597/attractive-women-higher-salaries/ author: Robin Hilmantel article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-19T15:37:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:31.594Z og:title: 'Attractive' Women Make More Money, Study Says og:description: But it has everything to do with whether they style their hair and makeup og:url: https://time.com/4341597/attractive-women-higher-salaries/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4da6b275bab6967/698893ea0b72e30c7a6e9732/well-groomed-women-earn-more.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Dressing room mirror with ten light bulbs og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Attractive' Women Make More Money, Study Says twitter:description: But it has everything to do with whether they style their hair and makeup twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4da6b275bab6967/698893ea0b72e30c7a6e9732/well-groomed-women-earn-more.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Attractive' Women Make More Money, Study Says by [Robin Hilmantel](https://time.com/author/robin-hilmantel/) ## Robin Hilmantel May 19, 2016 3:37 PM UTC  Dressing room mirror with ten light bulbs Dressing room mirror with ten light bulbsGetty Images by [Robin Hilmantel](https://time.com/author/robin-hilmantel/) ## Robin Hilmantel May 19, 2016 3:37 PM UTC That hour you spent [getting ready for your last job interview](http://motto.time.com/4337924/job-interview-preparation-different-industries/) or big meeting might have been time well spent: Women who style their clothes, hair and makeup earn higher salaries than those who don’t, according to [a sociological study published in the journal _Research in Social Stratification and Mobility_](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0276562416300518). [The _Washington Post_ explains](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/19/the-real-reason-that-so-many-women-have-to-spend-so-much-time-getting-ready/) (emphasis ours): --- > “” --- [_Follow Motto on Facebook_.](https://www.facebook.com/mottoworkplaylive/) The researchers found that “very attractive” people—both men and women—earn 22% more than people who are only of “average attractiveness.” But among women, attractiveness was a net effect of styling, essentially. “For women, most of the attractiveness advantage comes from being well groomed,” Wong told the [_Washington Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/19/the-real-reason-that-so-many-women-have-to-spend-so-much-time-getting-ready/). “For men, only about half of the effect of attractiveness is due to grooming.” Also worth noting: [Women in this study earned less than men](http://motto.time.com/4201637/pay-gap-calculator/)—no matter how they styled their hair. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4341597/attractive-women-higher-salaries/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4341597/attractive-women-higher-salaries/"},"headline":"'Attractive' Women Make More Money, Study Says","datePublished":"2016-05-19T15:37:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:02:31.594Z","description":"But it has everything to do with whether they style their hair and makeup","url":"https://time.com/4341597/attractive-women-higher-salaries/","keywords":["motto","Money","News","Style","career"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4da6b275bab6967/698893ea0b72e30c7a6e9732/well-groomed-women-earn-more.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Robin Hilmantel","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/robin-hilmantel/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4da6b275bab6967/698893ea0b72e30c7a6e9732/well-groomed-women-earn-more.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dressing room mirror with ten light bulbs","caption":"Dressing room mirror with ten light bulbs","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4341597/attractive-women-higher-salaries/","name":"'Attractive' Women Make More Money, Study Says"}}]}] ```