Hot Waitress Economic Index |
| Credit: Restaurant India |
What does it mean?
• The hot waitress economic index is an offensive and dubious economic indicator that counts the number of attractive people working as servers.
• It says the higher the number of good-looking servers, the weaker the current state of the economy. The questionable assumption is that attractive individuals do not have trouble finding higher-paying jobs during good times in the economy.
• During tougher economic times, though-according to the indicator-high-paying jobs are more difficult to get, and therefore a higher number of attractive people will be forced to work in service-industry jobs.
Understanding the Attractive Server Index
• The attractive server index was first articulated by Hugo Lindgren in an article for New York Magazine.
• In his piece, written at the onset of the Great Recession, Lindgren wrote about finding what he considered to be more attractive people serving tables at a Lower East Side establishment in New York City.
• These servers were replacements for people who had been laid off. The manager in charge reportedly surmised that good-looking waitresses would drive more sales for the establishment.
How Relevant is this indicator?
• The attractive server index hasn't been vetted by economists, and it is not known if this strategy by the management of one establishment was successful.
• A traditional economic theory contends that employment tends to be a lagging indicator for economic recovery, but Lindgren contended there was "good reason to believe" his index was a leading indicator.
• "As a commodity that's fairly cheap, historically effective as a marketing tool, and available on a freelance basis, hotness will likely be back in demand long before your average Michigan autoworker is" he wrote.
• There is minimal research in support of this indicator. Scientists have found that attractive people tend to be considered more capable and are more confident, and these two things combine to get them better jobs and higher wages.
• This is often called "lookism" or beauty bias. So when attractive people are waiting tables-a job some consider to be lower skill, and/or lower pay-it could suggest there is a lack of better jobs out there.
0 Comments