We use large- scale register data on 450,000 Swedish males who underwentmandatory military enlistment at age 18, and a subsample of 150,000siblings, to examine why tall people earn more. We show the importance ofboth cognitive and noncognitive skills, as well as family background andmuscular strength for the height- earnings relationship. In addition, we showthat a substantial height premium remains after these factors have beenaccounted for, which originates from very short people having low earnings.This is mostly explained by the sorting of short people into low- paidoccupations, which may indicate discrimination by stature