There is no denying the fact that employees, people, are valued, on a monetary basis, as much, if not more, on their looks than on their brains. A modeling looking gal always gets the boss's eye and gets pushed closer out front, so visitors can see her. The plain, the overweight, get held back in the enclosed offices, behind the decorative plants.
As for men -- It's in the muscles, dude. The hunk goes upfront. We haven't progressed that far from a time when we all had to hunt to survive, and the strong guys always took the point, whether to take on a dangerous beast, or to run down and to overpower the prey.
My hope is that things don't get so bad that in order to make a living everybody will have to look like models -- skinny ladies and big muscled men.