Tall versus Short

Finally, I have some confirmation. Something I have long suspected but never proved has been confirmed by Malcolm Gladwell. Short people do have it rough...at least if they want to be a CEO of practically anything. He did a survey of half the Fortune 500 companies concerning their CEO's. Overwhelminghly, the heads of the big companies were on average just a shade under six feet tall. He says, "Given that the average American Male is five foot nine, that means that CEOs as a group have about three inches on the rest of their sex (Gladwell in Blink page 87)." Here's some more stats:

• 14.5 % of US Population men are six feet or taller.
• 58% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies

• 3.9% of general American male population are six foot two or taller
• 1/3 of CEO sample were

And then this one: "Researchers who analyzed the data from four large research studies that had followed thousands of people from birth to adulthood calculated that when corrected for such variables as age and gender and weight, an inch of height is worth $789 a year in salary . That means that a person who is six feet tall but otherwise identical to someon who is five foot five will make on average $5,525 more per year(88)."

So...I guess I did get the short end of the stick. Pun intended.