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 ...
Dang! I could use that extra money. I’d spend it on smokes :-)
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.
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.
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.
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.
I like starting again because quitting is so much fun.
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.
Higher wages linked to better impulse control. Who knew?
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.
Don’t forget a 2 pack/day smoker spends over $4,000 per year on smokes, maybe more depending on where you live.
It was probably funded with taxes from tobacco sales.
You’re right, smoking definitely inhibits olfactory sensitivity.
so, if you want your kids to have high paying careers, you want to get them to start smoking, and then quit - right?
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.
Smart people give it up when the perceived risk exceeds the perceived benefit/pleasure.
Former smokers make more money because everybody almost tries smoking in college so college graduates are over represented among former smokers.
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