Americans spend billions of dollars each year trying to change their weight with diets, gym memberships and plastic surgery.

    Trying to live up to the images of “perfect” models and movie heroes has a dark side: anxiety, depression, as well as unhealthy strategies for weight loss or muscle gain. It also has a financial cost. Having an eating disorder boosts annual health care costs by nearly US$2,000 per person.

    Why is there both external and internal pressure to look “perfect”? One reason is that society rewards people who are thin and healthy-looking. Researchers have shown that body mass index is related to wages and income. Especially for women, there is a clear penalty at work for being overweight or obese. Some studies have also found an impact for men, though a less noticeable one.

    While the research literature is clear that labor market success is partly based on how employers and customers perceive your body image, no one had explored the other side of the question. Does a person’s own perception of body image matter to earnings and other indicators of success in the workplace?

    Our recently published study answered this question by tracking a large national random sample of Americans over a critical time period when bodies change from teenage shape into adult form and when people build their identities.

    As in other research, women in our sample tend to over-perceive weight—they think they’re heavier than they are—while men tend to under-perceive theirs.

    We found no relationship between the average person’s self-perception of weight and labor market outcomes, although self-perceived weight can influence self-esteem (自尊心), mental health and health behaviors. 

    While the continued gender penalty in the labor market is frustrating, our finding that misperceived weight does not harm workers is more heartening.

    Since employers’ perception of weight is what matters in the labor market, changing discrimination laws to include body type as a category would help. Michigan is the only state that prohibits discrimination on the basis of weight and height. We believe expanding such protections would make the labor market more fair and efficient.

解析：A。根据题干中in the labor market和题文同序的原则可定位至最后一段。其中题干里的improve the situation in the labor market对应该段最后一句中的make the labor market more fair and efficient。作者在原文最后一段中提出倡议，相信在更大范围内禁止歧视体重和身高将使劳动力市场变得更加公平、高效。A项中的Banning discrimination对应原文最后一段第二句中的prohibits discrimination，on the basis of在该句中原词复现，employees’ body image对应该句中的weight and height，故A项为正确答案。

错项排除：B项利用原文最后一段中出现的expanding、protection和discrimination设置干扰，但原文中只是在讨论对体形的歧视，没有提到性别歧视，故B项排除。C项利用原文最后一段中出现的change和之前提到的perception设置干扰，原文中讨论了一个人对自身体重的认知都存在哪些影响，而且作者提议需要修改的是歧视细则，并没有要帮助员工改变对美的看法，故C项排除。D项利用原文最后一段中的as a category设置干扰，但这里只是在说改变歧视细则，将体形作为一个类别纳入其中，并没有提到劳动合同（labor contract），故D项排除。