No. Obesity is not a protected status by Federal and most State laws. If you choose to avoid subjecting your company or customers to an association with obese people, this is legal discrimination.
Using a Bonafide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) can further prevent employers from hiring an obese person. Newscasters, fitness trainers, and some models used for print or TV would easily be allowed to hire based on appearances that do not include protected statuses of age, race, and gender.
Caveats :
One legal risk comes when a candidate qualifies for American Disabilities Act protection when either they qualify or are ‘presumed to qualify’ by the decision maker. A candidate qualifies for ADA protection when they are obese (100% overweight) and are disabled from a major life activity or when the condition results from another disease (diabetes, thyroid, etc.).
Scale :
66% of Americans are overweight. (National Center for Health Statistics)
In one study, 34.6% of variance in hiring came from the candidate’s weight. The study further suggests that :
Obese people are more offensive to employers than ex-felons or ex-mental patients.
Obese people are perceived to be emotionally impaired, socially handicapped, lacking self-discipline, disagreeable, having poor hygiene, and being mentally slow. (Wayne Cascio, Weight Based Discrimination 5/06)
Suggestions :
It is a manager’s job to get the most productivity from each employee. Manager’s cannot afford to pass up qualified candidates on the basis of any prejudice.
Cases :
More Micro, Less Soft. BusinessWeek 11/27/06
“Whose life is it anyway?” 60 Minutes profiled Weyco’s (Michigan company) decision to fire employees that wouldn’t quit smoking. The owner believes that medical plans weren’t created for unhealthy lifestyles. Although he can cut business costs with lower costing medical insurance of maybe 5-15%, its not worth eliminating any percentage of available labor nor the negative impacts on morale that may creep into other areas of allowable prejudices.
Other :
Don’t single an employee out for help or a wellness program. If an employer wants to generally make a wellness program available for employees, that is great. (its unfortunate that the people who need it may not be the people who will take advantage of it.) Business owners and managers constantly need to develop more tolerance for others and their choices.
[UPDATE]
Forbes article and http://www.findlaw.com/ BFOQ v. discrimination
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