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A handsome man can earn a fifth more than a plainer colleague but a beautiful woman is not paid a penny more than her average-looking colleague, new research has shown. The study by senior economists found that being good-looking meant male workers could earn 22 percent more than average-looking colleagues. Researchers said good looks did not give women a similar advantage. Andrew Leigh, the former economics professor at the Australian National University who co-authored the report, said: "Beauty can be a double-edged sword for women. "Some people still believe good looks and intelligence are incompatible in women so a good-looking woman can't be that productive, but there's no dumb-blonde syndrome affecting men's pay." He said that although he believed good-looking women may also earn more, the research did not support his theory. The research found that handsome men in all jobs, from manual labour to highly-paid professional careers, can earn 22 percent more than their colleagues doing an identical role. Men with below-average looks face an uphill battle in the office, with ugliness reducing a man's earnings by 26 percent compared to an average-looking worker. Former male model Ian Mitchell, 28, who has a first class degree in history from Edinburgh and now works for a cosmetics company, told the Sunday Times: "It gives you confidence, and I suspect people tend to warm to you more quickly." | 
