Weight-loss medications may be doing more than changing the number on the scale: New research suggests they could also improve job prospects for unemployed women.
Unemployed women who used GLP-1 medications for weight loss experienced a 27 percentage-point increase in employment after 18 months, compared with women who wanted to take the drugs but had not yet started, according to a recent National Bureau of Economic Research paper by Harvard economist Rebecca Diamond.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence around the so-called “obesity penalty,” a pattern that appears to fall especially hard on heavier women, who are often paid less and are less likely to marry or live with a partner. Diamond also found that women who began GLP-1 treatment saw marriage and cohabitation rates rise by 29 percentage points after 18 months.
Still, the study does not indicate that GLP-1 drugs boosted career advancement for women who were already employed. Diamond noted there was no evidence that working women using the medications were more likely to receive raises or promotions. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The research also highlights a thornier issue: access. Diamond wrote that early users of GLP-1 medications are “disproportionately financially advantaged,” raising questions about whether the benefits of medical weight loss may be unevenly distributed.
“If medical weight loss changes how women are treated in markets, then unequal access to the drugs may also shape who can avoid the social and economic penalties attached to body size,” Diamond wrote. “It is also unsettling to think about using medical treatment as a possible remedy for discrimination.”
What is the “female obesity penalty”?
Previous research has shown that obese women face measurable bias in the workplace. They are more likely to earn lower wages and receive fewer callbacks after initial interviews than women with lower body weight.
GLP-1 drugs may alter those outcomes for some heavier women as more turn to the medications specifically to lose weight. By the end of 2024, 6% of U.S. women had started using a GLP-1 for weight loss, Diamond reported. Uptake was higher among women with a history of obesity, with 9% using the drugs to slim down.
Diamond used the Understanding America Study, a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults, to compare jobless women who start a GLP-1 regimen to lose weight with those who have not yet sought such treatment.
“Women not employed at baseline also move into work,” she said in the paper, noting that employment gains accumulate as job candidates shed weight. Workers who were unemployed and found jobs accounted for most of the employment gains, rather than people who returned from retirement or disability.
By contrast, already employed women who start taking GLP-1s don’t see a boost at work, with their career trajectories likely reflecting a number of other factors, the study found. In other words, the obesity penalty is strongest during the job interview process and less prevalent once someone is in the workplace.
Aimee Picchi
