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Smoking prevalence declines as wages increase

Higher wages, regardless of other income, appeared associated with reduced smoking prevalence among current and former smokers, according to study results.

Juan Du, PhD, of the department of economics at Strome College of Business in Norfolk, Virginia, and colleague analyzed longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics — a data set frequently used by social scientists — to evaluate full-time employed individuals aged 21 to 65 years who identified themselves as current or former smokers.

The researchers created instrumental variables for the unionization rates of workers as well as the state minimum wage, accounting for factors such as sex, education level, and smoking cessation and resumption.

Researchers observed some evidence that low wages led to greater smoking prevalence in the overall study sample, and considerable evidence that low wages led to greater smoking prevalence among men, individuals with high school education or less and those who indicated they had previously quit smoking.

An analysis controlled for other family income — including spouses’ wages — showed a 10% wage increase led to a 5.5% decrease in smoking prevalence among men and a 4.6% decrease in smoking prevalence among study participants with low education levels. A 10% wage increase also increased the likelihood that a base-year smoker would quit from 17% to 20.4%.

“Given well-known associations between smoking and health insurance premiums — as well as between smoking and work productivity — employers have incentives to reduce smoking prevalence among employees,” Du and colleagues wrote. “Some employers pay for smoking cessation programs, whereas others offer financial incentives to quit. … Our findings, especially for the large wage effects on the propensity to quit, suggest that the benefits of paying higher wages include reductions in smoking prevalence. “Our results suggest that employers might consider these benefits in wage negotiations.” – by Jeff Craven

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.