职场新研究：成功戒烟带来高工资

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

一项新的研究发现，成功戒烟者的工资水平要高于未戒烟者和从未吸过烟的人。

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.

在亚特兰大联邦储备银行公布的一份工作论文当中，霍奇基斯和皮茨这两名经济学家对吸烟与工资之间的关系进行了研究。利用从1992年到2011年间美国人口普查局当期人口调查中的《烟草制品使用情况附录》数据，两人发现，成功戒烟至少一年的人群，其工资高于未戒烟者和从未吸过烟的人。数据表明，不吸烟人群(包括从不吸烟的人群和已经戒烟的人群)的每小时工资水平大致相当于已戒烟者的95%。

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.

而另一方面，职场中未戒烟者的情况要更差一些。两名经济学家写道，他们的工资水平相当于不吸烟人群的80%。皮茨说，吸烟会侵蚀你在劳动力市场上的人力资源价值。

Are tobacco users earning less because smoking reduces their productivity? Ms. Hotckiss and Ms. Pitts didn't find evidence for this. The two economists tested the relationship between wages and smoking intensity and found that the frequency at which people smoke doesn't significantly affect their earnings. 'The idea is that if the productivity was affected by smoking, then heavier smokers would have a much larger wage gap. We didn't find support for this hypothesis,' said Ms. Pitts.

未戒烟者的工资水平较低是不是因为吸烟降低了他们的劳动生产率呢?霍奇基斯和皮茨并没有发现相关证据。这两名经济学家测试了工资和吸烟强度的关系，发现吸烟的频度对他们的收入没有显著影响。皮茨说，这里面的逻辑是，如果说吸烟影响生产率，那么吸烟频率高的人的工资差距就应该大一些，不过我们并没有发现支持这一假设的证据。

They determined that differences in the characteristics of smokers and nonsmokers, such as educational attainment, as well as unmeasured factors such as an employer's tolerance to smoking behavior, are mostly driving the wage gap. 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.

他们认为，未戒烟人群和不吸烟人群之间出现的工资水平差距大部分原因在于特质上的差别(比如受教育程度)和其他未测量的因素(比如雇主对抽烟这种行为的容忍度)。他们指出，受教育程度是影响最大的变量。与未戒烟人群相比，不吸烟人群的受教育程度更高，其配偶吸烟的可能性也更低，并且居住在香烟价格水平更高的州里面。

The findings suggest that the characteristics of former smokers are more highly rewarded in the labor market than those of smokers and people who have never smoked. '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.'

相关发现表明，与未戒烟者和从未吸过烟的人相比，戒烟者的特质在劳动市场中更被看重。皮茨说：只有比较特别的人才能戒掉一种成瘾行为，因此，与从未开始吸烟这种行为相比，戒烟这种行为得到的奖励更高;我认为，对雇主而言，坚持、耐心和其他与戒烟能力相关的所有品质都很有价值。