A recent lawsuit that emerged this year has shed some light on a disturbing part of waiting tables. Your muffin top could cost you your job. Former Hooter Waitresses Cassie Smith and Leanne Convery were put on weight probation and told they had 30 days to lose the weight or lose their jobs. But luck was on their side. They just so happen to live in Michigan, the ONLY STATE that prohibits discrimination based on weight. Thanks to the Michigan Elliot Larson civil rights Act that passed in 1970, and the opinion of Judge Maceroni, these two waitresses were able to proceed with their case.
Mike Mc Neil, vice president of Marketing for Hooters of America, commented ” I guess what the basis of the lawsuit is, what a Hooters girl looks like matters everywhere in the US except Michigan” . But these women are not overweight or near being overweight. Cassie Smith is 5″8 and weighs 132. She is a glowing, vibrant young women who displays a healthy normal body. According To WebMD, she is well within the normal weight range for a woman of her height. The weight loss that Hooters required of her would have potentially forced her to be underweight. WebMD listed anything below 130 pounds would be considered underweight- potentially harming her health to meet the rail thin requirements to work at Hooters. Mc Neil further commented that the state law is “one of the long list of things that make it harder for us to do business in Michigan than in our 45 other states.” If promoting a unhealthy body image that can potentially harm the health of the workers is the only way a business can prosper perhaps we do not need these kinds of businesses. Only 6 cities have adopted their own discrimination laws based on weight. They include: San Francisco, CA Santa Cruz, CA, Birmigham, NY, Madison Wi, Washington and Urbana, Ill. Everywhere else, anorexia may be required.