Hiring hotties: When can an employer prefer the attractive over the homely?

MARYLOU’S COFFEE, a chain in New England, is renowned less for its coffee than for its staff. In tight pink T-shirts and short shorts, they tend to be young, pretty and female. But is that illegal? In May the press reported that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was investigating Marylou’s for hiring discrimination. (The EEOC cannot confirm any investigation at this point.) Worse, the papers said the investigation comes without anyone having complained about being turned down for a job. Op-ed writers pounced. A writer at the Boston Herald proclaimed: “Yes, Marylou’s ‘discriminates’. Every employer ‘discriminates’. If they didn’t, I’d be working as a Chippendales dancer.”

Link