[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8mynrRd7Ak?feature=player_embedded]

This video is wonderful for a few reasons. In the first place it is really funny. And in the second place, it reminds us that even monkeys understand about fairness.  When monkeys do equal work, monkeys expect equal pay.

Yet, in the world of humans, we have an ever growing disparity in worker pay. At my last full-time job, I was discouraged to learn that my immediate supervisor was earning nearly ten times my pay. And I was also earning less than half as much as the male producer in the office next door. Granted, my supervisor was higher on the totem pole than me, but ten TIMES higher? I don’t think so. And I have to admit, when I found out that others doing the same job as me were getting paid twice as much, well I started lobbing more than cucumbers out of my cage.

This is why I get so boiling mad when I see that fat people on average earn less than their thinner counterparts. Even when the fat person is performing the job as well or better than their thinner counterparts, the bigger person typically brings home a smaller paycheck. According to The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, in 2004 obese men earned $4,772 less than thin men, and obese women earned an astonishing $8,666 less than thin women. That’s a lot of grapes, my friends.

This is one of the reasons I think it is so important to be aware of and fight against size discrimination. We’re talking not only about somebody calling us names and making mooing sounds when we are trying to work out in the gym.  (Although those things are truly horrible as well.) but also about our ability to make a living. $8,000 can easily mean the difference between being above or below the poverty line. $8,000 can pay for better health care or a college class or special job training. $8,000 could pay for a used car to get us to a better job.

Let’s continue to fight for the rights of people of all sizes to receive a fair wage. Let’s share the message far and wide that equal pay for equal work is just common sense. It’s a pretty simple idea. Heck, even a monkey can grasp it.

Love,
The Fat Chick