Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 26 (3): 1957 - 1969 (2018) ISSN: 0128-7702 e-ISSN 2231-8534 SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES Journal homepage: http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/ Article history: Received: 23 March 2017 Accepted: 06 March 2018 Published: 28 September 2018 ARTICLE INFO E-mail addresses: hannyzurina@upm.edu.my (Hanny Zurina Hamzah) mikofu88@hotmail.com (Foo Lee Peng) norashidah@upm.edu.my (Norashidah Mohamed Nor) rusmawati@upm.edu.my (Rusmawati Said) * Corresponding author © Universiti Putra Malaysia Press Effects of Obesity in Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from Malaysia Foo Lee Peng, Hanny Zurina Hamzah*, Norashidah Mohamed Nor and Rusmawati Said Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia ABSTRACT With the aims to shed light on the relationship between obesity and labour market outcomes in Malaysia, the ordinal regression model was applied on the collected questionnaires. The result from the three models suggests that employers do not consider workers’ appearance and gender when they employ workers. After all, they are more concern about performance, education background and age when recruiting their ideal staff member. Even though this study fails to prove the existence of discrimination which has led to lower wages among Malaysians, the result of this study has proven that obese workers receive unfavorable treatment. Since the prevalence of obesity among Malaysian adults is substantial, the outcome of this study is crucial as it gives comprehensive information on the impact of obesity on the labour market outcome in Malaysia. The information from this study may help the authorities how to develop activities and programs in fghting obesity and how to encourage Malaysian to maintain healthy lifestyle. Keywords: Income, labour market outcome, Malaysia, obesity, ordinal regression INTRODUCTION Previously, plus size body is preferable since many jobs require demanding physical activities such as the heavy and tough tasks in agriculture sector. However, today, labour market structure has immensely changed where job requirements are less focused on physical exertion, which means plus size body is less preferable. For instance, for an offce job, bigger body size do not have significant impact on productivity