- 06.17.13
The Strength Of Your Voice May Have An Impact On Your Salary
Deep voices used to take you further up the pay scale, but research says that might be changing.
Men with deeper voices are paid more, says a new study out of Duke University’s business school. Researchers sampled male CEOs (female sample size was too small) from S&P 1,500 firms and found that a 22.1 Hz drop in vocal pitch relative to the average meant an extra $187,000 a year. In extremes:
James Earl Jones’s rumble
85 Hz voice
$4M/year
Average male CEO’s voice
125 Hz voice
$3.7M/year
Gilbert Gottfried’s quack
215 Hz voice
$2.9M/year
That may change, though: The commanding sound of deep voices may rule in a top-down, old-school business, says lead researcher William Mayew. But at new companies that encourage collaboration, he suspects that a less booming voice might be just as (or more!) effective.
[Magazine Credits: ASTRID STAWIARZ/GETTY IMAGES (JONES); TOMMASO BODDI/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES (GOTTFRIED); SHUTTERSTOCK (DARTH VADER, DUCK)]
[Image: Flickr user JD Hancock]
