Almost 60% of jobseekers change appearance to help careers: survey

1111 Job Bank conducted a survey on 1,085 people working in different job fields regarding the relationship between appearance and work. The statistics showed that 67 percent of the responders said that it helps their career or increases the interview opportunities by changing their appearance.

The statistics also showed that about 23 percent of the survey responders said that working ability is more important than the appearance.

1111 Job Bank spokeswoman Chang Hsu-lan (張旭嵐) said “many people invest in their appearance to increase their confidence at work. About 5 percent of the survey responders even tried cosmetic surgery to improve their appearance.”

SF Medical Group Manager Hsu Hui-chieh (許慧潔) said “the most common surgeries for women are double eye lids and rhinoplasty. Men usually like surgeries regarding removing wrinkles on the forehead.”

According to the statistics, 64 percent of the responders who changed their appearances used methods such as new cloths and hair cuts.

A female college student named Jenna who attended the press conference to share her story about how her appearance affects her income said “after I had my teeth fixed, I become more confident. I was hired to be a showgirl that paid five times more than the job I used to have.”

According to the statistic from the job bank, 71 percent of the survey responders like to work with colleagues who have a good appearance. However, nearly 30 percent of responders think otherwise, and believe that their colleagues put too much time into their appearance instead of their job performance.

Chang said that good appearance could help building a good first impression, but professional abilities and proper attitudes are still the main assets for people to compete at work.

Appearance Bias Is Illegal: Official

Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training official Shen Wen-li (沈文麗) said that it is against the Employment Services Act for employers to discriminate against employees or interviewees based on their appearance, gender and age.

According to the Employment Services Act, whoever violates the regulation could be fined a minimum of NT$300,000 and a maximum of NT$1.5 million.

New Taipei City Labor Affairs Department official Chen Shen-tsung (陳聖聰) said that there have been 13 cases filed to the New Taipei City Government about appearance discrimination since 2007. Only one of the cases was found to have enough evidence to move forward.

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