Blondes paid more than other women

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By MSN NZ Money staff

Forget the stereotype that blondes are dumb. A new study has found blonde-haired women get paid 7 percent more than redheads, brunettes and women with any other hair colours. So it's no wonder they have more fun — they have more cash.

A Queensland University of Technology researcher also found blondes also marry wealthier men, who earn an average of 6 percent more than the husbands of other women, the UK's Daily Telegraph reported.

The man behind the research? Dr David Johnston. "Blonde women are often depicted as being more attractive than other women, but also less intelligent," Dr Johnston said.

"But it seems the association between blondes and beauty dominates any perception that they have low intelligence," he said.

"This could explain why the 'blondeness effect' is evident in the marriage market."

Need a little extra cash? It might be time to go bottle blonde and bat your lashes at your boss for a pay rise. No worries if the collar doesn't match the cuffs — reportedly women to dye their hair blonde also adopt the ditsy blonde tendencies, so no one will ever know your true roots. Unless you forget to upkeep your blonde, that is.

The research has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of Economic Letters.

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User comments

The problem with the this study is it is not clear what it is trying to assess and doesn't discuss ethnicity, which is obviously a factor in hair colour. Is it trying to assess people who are naturally blonde, in which case it needs to exclude women who dye their hair, or it is trying to assess all women with blonde hair, including bottle blondes. I agree with Steve that blondes on average probably are paid more in Australia, since there fewer blondes, including bottle blondes, among the less economically successful groups like Aborigines and Polynesians, however given the unclear terms of the study we can't make any firm conclusions about whether caucasian blondes are paid anymore than white women with other hair colours.

Maybe blonde women more like to wear low-cut tops... maybe that's what's getting them more pay and weathier husbands..NOT the hair! statistics lies, and researchers need to be careful about making such claims.

I once lost 36kg and went blonde to get a job. I think the blondeness helped most, as people suddenly rated me "more confident" than I'd been before. They tried harder with a blonde, but as a brunette, people couldn't be bothered making conversation with me and considered me "shy". Same person, different attitudes!

Prostitutes do earn more...

I think you're onto something there. Maybe they have cause and effect round the wrong way. Maybe women CAN finally AFFORD to be blonde when they get a higher income

Hahahah. I literally WTF at this

The researcher will not have undertaken this research frivolously and will have used statistical tests to determine the trends. He will not have determined the results, the statistics will have done that. While you may not like the implications of the findings and consider them to be racist and sexist and so on, in Australia (which is where I assume the study has been conducted) blondes WILL earn more money. The research begs the question if the same applies to blond men? I seem to recall similar research that said that taller people got paid more too.

Could be - female prostitutes probably earn more than female physicists too! I recall reading an informal study of the number of female electronic enginineers employed by a US semiconductor company, a few years ago, that reported more than 80% were NOT blondes!

This is one of the most outrageous things I have ever heard! Is it not colour discrimination and as for dyeing your hair blonde and batting eyelashes at the boss for a payrise. I would think that this would fall into the sexual harrassment catagory. The idea that people with a certain hair colour and personality to match would be employed over an intelligent qualified person is just insane. I am a brunette and I take offence to this! It is as bad as being racist!!!

who ever believes that *** is a moron, did you assess every blonde on the globe, and what the *** blondes are seen as less intelligent no, its just fun saying oh you are blonde its just fun and games, who ever researched this needs to take up another profession