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Ability to Quit Smoking Linked to Higher Wages
WSJ ^ | July 18, 2013 | Khadeeja Safdar

Posted on 07/21/2013 8:00:06 AM PDT by Drango

Former smokers earn higher wages than smokers and people who have never smoked, according to new research.

In a working paper published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, research economists Julie L. Hotchkiss and M. Melinda Pitts studied the relationship between smoking and wages. Using data from the Tobacco Use Supplement to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey over the period of 1992 to 2011, the economists found that people who had quit smoking for at least a year earned higher wages than smokers and people who had never smoked. The data shows that nonsmokers, which include never smokers and former smokers, bring in about 95% of the hourly wages of former smokers.

Smokers, on the other hand, are not rewarded as much in the workplace. They earned about 80% of nonsmokers’ wages. Even one cigarette a day triggers a wage gap between smokers and nonsmokers, the economists write. “Smoking erodes the value of your human capital in the labor market,” said Ms. Pitts.

`snip They noted that education level was the largest contributing variable. Nonsmokers tend to be more educated, are less likely to have spouses who smoke and live in states where cigarette prices are higher than smokers. ~snip “It takes a special person to quit an addictive behavior, and there is a higher reward for smoking cessation than not ever starting it,” said Ms. Pitts. “I think the qualities of persistence, patience and everything else that goes along with being able to quit are valuable to employers.”

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: pufflist
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Wage wise it sucks about 20% to be a smoker. Dang!
1 posted on 07/21/2013 8:00:06 AM PDT by Drango
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To: Drango

Dang! I could use that extra money. I’d spend it on smokes :-)


2 posted on 07/21/2013 8:09:37 AM PDT by JoeDetweiler
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To: Drango

in 1976, I had been smoking around 15 years and smoking around 2-3 packs a day.

I went deer hunting in November for the first time in around 5 year and was winded climbing the hills....

I was too young at 27 to be winded climbing those hills...

I quit then and there....no patch, no gum, no special medicine............it hurt to quit....for weeks, it hurt. then it didn’t. I still craved for years, but not physical, but mental craving....37 years later I still occasionally think about having a cigarette...but don’t.


3 posted on 07/21/2013 8:13:14 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: All

4 posted on 07/21/2013 8:15:23 AM PDT by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: Vaquero
I quit March of 1986.
Got a new Chevy Caprice company car. it smelled so good that I didn't want to smoke in it.
5 posted on 07/21/2013 8:15:55 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (NRA Life Member)
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To: Drango

Did we pay for this study? (Just wondering.)

The should have standardized for geographic location, ethnicity, sex, age, &c.

The people who gave up smoking do illustrate an admirable level of self-control and determination, as well as an interest in health.

I suspect that there is also a big negative correction between tattoos and income, also. Tattoos indicate a lack of self respect, particularly for one’s person. As tattoos always run with age (and never look good on old skin), a person getting a tattoo probably manifests a short-term view, perhaps having inculcated too much of the popular “live-in-the-moment” attitude so common today among junk psychologists and phony preachers.


6 posted on 07/21/2013 8:16:32 AM PDT by docbnj
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To: JoeDetweiler

Fortunately not all non and former smokers are self righteous assholes.

They remind me of a boss I had who paid gays and minorities more due to their oppressed lives.


7 posted on 07/21/2013 8:17:59 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: Drango

Sounds like a false link to me...

They include in the set of non smokers the subset of former smokers. Unless those former smokers get new jobs there is no reason for their wages to rise at all, other than normally. So if you say that they quit and their wages went up, unless you can tie it to smoking itself, it means nothing.

Now it could be that smokers don’t get hired in the first place..that would surely be valid as companies screen for the habit to limit future health liabilities. In that sense smokers would make less because there are those whose wages are zero because of the number never hired.


8 posted on 07/21/2013 8:20:09 AM PDT by Adder (No, Mr. Franklin, we could NOT keep it.)
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To: Drango

I like starting again because quitting is so much fun.


9 posted on 07/21/2013 8:20:30 AM PDT by Track9 (hey Kalid.. kalid.. bang you're dead)
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To: Track9

If I was to quit smoking I would have to burn everything I own to include my shop which my father smoked in.I wouldn’t be able to stand the smell.


10 posted on 07/21/2013 8:25:36 AM PDT by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life's tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
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To: Drango

Higher wages linked to better impulse control. Who knew?


11 posted on 07/21/2013 8:26:48 AM PDT by riri (Plannedopolis-look it up. It's how the elites plan for US to live.)
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To: HANG THE EXPENSE

I quit about 15 years ago but I don’t have any issues with smokers. I keep ashtrays in my house. I don’t drink anymore either but I’ll pick up beer on my way to a party but I’ll drink Gatorade or soda.


12 posted on 07/21/2013 8:29:15 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: Drango

Don’t forget a 2 pack/day smoker spends over $4,000 per year on smokes, maybe more depending on where you live.


14 posted on 07/21/2013 8:31:28 AM PDT by umgud (2A can't survive dem majorities)
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To: docbnj
"Did we pay for this study? (Just wondering.)

It was probably funded with taxes from tobacco sales.

15 posted on 07/21/2013 8:32:10 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: HANG THE EXPENSE

You’re right, smoking definitely inhibits olfactory sensitivity.


16 posted on 07/21/2013 8:40:57 AM PDT by Track9 (hey Kalid.. kalid.. bang you're dead)
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To: Drango

so, if you want your kids to have high paying careers, you want to get them to start smoking, and then quit - right?


17 posted on 07/21/2013 8:41:39 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: Drango

My mother used to smoke 3 packs a day...until she had to have half a lung removed because of it. The doctor told her, essentially, “Stop smoking or die”. She stopped.

That was 40 years ago, and she’s still here.


18 posted on 07/21/2013 8:45:17 AM PDT by Kip Russell (Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors -- and miss. ---Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Drango
Smoking is risk-taking behavior. Taking risks is part of achieving success.

Smart people give it up when the perceived risk exceeds the perceived benefit/pleasure.

19 posted on 07/21/2013 8:45:28 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Who knew that one day professional wrestling would be less fake than professional journalism?)
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To: Drango

Former smokers make more money because everybody almost tries smoking in college so college graduates are over represented among former smokers.


20 posted on 07/21/2013 8:46:27 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (Don't fire until you see the blue of their helmets)
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