In a study published in 2007, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Yale School of Medicine studied workplace injuries among 7,690 hourly employees of an aluminum manufacturing company over a three-year period. Twenty-nine percent of the employees suffered at least one injury, and of those, approximately 85 percent were classified as overweight or obese.

Such statistics are not a valid reason to turn down a qualified job applicant, however.

“Not hiring someone because you fear you will have higher workers comp claims and costs due to his weight is no different than saying you are not hiring because you fear higher health care costs, and the EEOC has long held that that is not an appropriate decision,” says Teresa Jakubowski, a partner at Barnes & Thornburg.