Tattoo Discrimination in Employment and Earnings?

Research on tattoos in the workplace tends to focus on hiring decisions for tattooed job applicants, with findings suggesting that job applicants with tattoos are disadvantaged compared to those without tattoos. Despite this disadvantage in hiring, tattooed individuals still obtain work; however, we know little about the disadvantages they may experience while employed.

Dr. Michael French and colleagues examined not only whether tattooed individuals were obtaining employment but also what tattooed individuals were earning if they were employed. The studies take into account personal factors, such as gender, age, and education, as well.

 

AI Generated Image (https://deepai.org) of a person at work

The Studies

French et al. (2016) used two large pre-existing datasets from the US and Australia. French et al. (2019) conducted their own survey similar to the datasets used prior but with improvements to address the limitations identified.

Tattoo characteristics of interest:

• Study 1: Whether or not had a tattoo

• Study 2: (1) whether or not had a tattoo; (2) number of tattoos; (3) if have one or more visible tattoo(s); (4) if have one or more offensive tattoos

Outcomes of interest:

• Study 1: (1) employment status; (2) earnings

• Study 2: (1) employment status; (2) hours worked per week, (3) earnings

Results: Is there tattoo discrimination in employment and earnings?

• Study 1: The pattern of results suggests that having tattoos is linked to lower chances of being employed and earning less money, even accounting for demographics like age and gender; however, accounting for education eliminates this link. This suggests that education is more impactful on employment and earnings than having tattoos.

• Study 2: For men, having tattoos is linked to a greater likelihood of being employed, but there was no link between tattoos and employment for women. In addition, those with tattoos tend to work more hours per week. Having tattoos did not have any meaningful effect on how much money people earn.

Key Takeaways: What does this mean for tattooed individuals?

On the one hand, the findings from the first study show that those with tattoos are less likely to be employed than those without; however, after taking into account education level, this is no longer the case. That is, educational attainment seems to matter more for employment and earnings than having tattoos or not having tattoos (which is a nice segue to another blog post summarizing research by Dr. Christine Henle and colleagues that found being highly qualified for a job can offset negative effects of having tattoos on chances of being hired – you can read more by following this link 😊).

On the other hand, the findings from the second study show that, for the most part, tattoos do not meaningfully impact the likelihood of employment or the amount of money earned. Interestingly, those with tattoos worked more hours per week; however, without more information, we cannot say whether this is a beneficial or detrimental outcome. For example, this could signal a more prestigious job with many responsibilities and long hours or indicate working many hours per week at a low-paying job to earn enough to survive. As such, this would be an interesting aspect to explore more.

The findings largely suggest that those with tattoos are not less employed than those without tattoos, and regardless, other aspects, such as educational attainment, could matter more.

TL;DR: Three main takeaways:

1. Education likely matters more than having tattoos for employment and earnings.

2. Tattoos may not impact employment or earnings nowadays, but we do not know how this differs by industry, job type, and similar contextual aspects.

3. Those with tattoos might be working more hours per week, but more research is needed to understand why this is the case.

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French, M. T., Maclean, J. C., Robins, P. K., Sayed, B., & Shiferaw, L. (2016). Tattoos, employment, and labor market earnings: is there a link in the ink?. Southern Economic Journal, 82(4), 1212-1246.

French, M. T., Mortensen, K., & Timming, A. R. (2019). Are tattoos associated with employment and wage discrimination? Analyzing the relationships between body art and labor market outcomes. Human Relations, 72(5), 962-987.