Impact of body mass on job quality

- We study the association between adults' body mass and job quality in South Korea.
- Job quality is a composite measure of labor market success.
- A quantile regression model is used.
- We find a job quality penalty in the upper quantiles for overweight women.
- The spill-over impact of obesity on labor market success is persistent for women.

The current study explores the association between body mass and job quality, a composite measurement of job characteristics, for adults. We use nationally representative data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study for the years 2005, 2007, and 2008 with 7282 person-year observations for men and 4611 for women. A Quality of Work Index (QWI) is calculated based on work content, job security, the possibilities for improvement, compensation, work conditions, and interpersonal relationships at work. The key independent variable is the body mass index (kg/m2) splined at 18.5, 25, and 30. For men, BMI is positively associated with the QWI only in the normal weight segment (+0.19 percentage points at the 10th, +0.28 at the 50th, +0.32 at the 75th, +0.34 at the 90th, and +0.48 at the 95th quantiles). A unit increase in the BMI for women is associated with a lower QWI at the lower quantiles in the normal weight segment (−0.28 at the 5th, −0.19 at the 10th, and −0.25 percentage points at the 25th quantiles) and at the upper quantiles in the overweight segment (−1.15 at the 90th and −1.66 percentage points at the 95th quantiles). The results imply a spill-over cost of overweight or obesity beyond its impact on health in terms of success in the labor market.