Does being taller mean you earn more at work? 6 Minute English

Neil: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute

English. I'm Neil.

Catherine: And I'm Catherine.

Neil: Catherine, are you tall enough?

Catherine: Tall enough for what?

Neil: Tall enough to be happy with your height.

Catherine: Er, well, yes, I'm alright with

my height, I can't do a thing about it

anyway so, how about you?

Neil: Well, the same, really. I wouldn't

mind being slightly taller, I suppose, which

is appropriate as today's

topic is about heightism.

Catherine: Heightism. Now, you may not

have heard of heightism before, but it's

like other 'isms' - like racism, sexism,

ageism and other 'isms' that highlight a

particular kind of

discrimination or unequal treatment that

people experience.

Neil: But before we find out more about

this topic, our quiz question for today.

The tallest person ever proven to live was

Robert Wadlow from the USA. How tall

was he? Was he: a) 2.71m; b) 2.72m or

c) 2.73m? What do you think, Catherine?

Catherine: Wow, that's really, really tall!

I'm going to guess 2.71m.

Neil: Well, listen out for the answer at the

end of the programme. Tanya S Osensky

is an attorney and author of the book

'Shortchanged' about her own

experiences of heightism.

Catherine: Clever title. To short-change

someone is to not give them what they

are entitled to, what they deserve.

And originally this phrase comes from

paying for something and

not getting the right money back. So if I

buy something for £6 and I pay with a £10

note and the shopkeeper only gives me

£3 back, I've been short-changed - it

means I've been cheated. And in the

context of facing discrimination because

you're not tall, 'Shortchanged'

is a really good pun.

Neil: Tanya spoke about her book on the

BBC radio programme Thinking Allowed.

She talks first about our general

feelings about height. What does she say

people never wish for?

Tanya S Osensky: Everybody that I've

spoken to who is tall relishes their height.

I have not met anybody who said they

would wish they were shorter and people

generally tend to even embellish what

their height is when you

ask them what it is.

Neil: So what is it she says

no one wishes for?

Catherine: Well, she says no one wishes

they were shorter!

Neil: And that's right. She said that tall

people relish their height. This means

they enjoy being tall, they get

great satisfaction from it.

Catherine: And another point she makes

is that many people embellish their

height, if asked. This means they say

they are taller than they actually are. Now,

to embellish a fact means to

exaggerate it to make it seem

bigger, faster, better and so on.

Neil: Here's Tanya S Osensky again.

Tanya S Osensky: Everybody that I've

spoken to who is tall relishes their height.

I have not met anybody who said

they would wish they were shorter and

people generally tend to even embellish

what their height is when you

ask them what it is.

Neil: She goes on to explain how some

research has shown that shorter people

are less likely to get jobs, less likely to get

promoted and less likely to earn as much

as taller people. What is the financial

difference she mentions? She talks about

the premium per inch. An inch is about

2.5cm and the premium is a word which

means the extra benefit,

the extra advantage.

Here's Tanya S Osensky again.

Tanya S Osensky: One set of data showed

that the premium for height is over $2000

per inch for men and $1000 per inch

for women and over time that disparity

grows significantly so it ends up being

a huge chunk of someone's

paycheck over their career.

Catherine: She says that taller men earn

$2000 an inch.

Neil: For women it's a bit less, but still

significant at $1000 an inch.

Catherine: And this disparity - or

difference - between the salaries of taller

and shorter people, is an example

of heightism. Shorter people, she says,

are getting fewer jobs and

fewer benefits because they are short.

Neil: Well, one person who certainly

wasn't short was the subject of today's

quiz question. The tallest person who

has lived, Robert Wadlow. We asked how

tall he was, was it: a) 2.71m;

b) 2.72m or c) 2.73m?

What did you say, Catherine?

Catherine: I said 2.71m.

Neil: Well, you were almost there. The

correct answer was b) 2.72m.

Congratulations if you got that right.

Now Catherine, much as I relish

being in the studio with you, we must

wrap up the programme now with

a review of today's vocabulary.

Catherine: Well, relish was one of those

words. If you relish something you really

enjoy it - so thanks you for that, Neil.

Neil: You're welcome! This programme

was about a kind of discrimination.

This means the unfair or unequal

treatment of people because of,

for example, their race, religion, colour,

age or indeed height.

Catherine: And discrimination because of

someone's height is called heightism.

Neil: Something which many of us do is

embellish our height - we say we are taller

than we actually are.

Catherine: A premium is an extra benefit

or advantage that can be gained, in this

case, by being taller. And finally

we had disparity, another word for

difference. There is a disparity

between salaries of tall people and

their shorter colleagues.

Neil: And that is 6 Minute English for

today. Do join us again and until then we

look forward to seeing you in all the

usual places: Instagram, Facebook,

Twitter, YouTube as well as our

website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Goodbye.

Catherine: Bye!