Study: Smokers Less Likely to be Hired and Earn Less Money

Smoking is undeniably one of the worst things you can do in terms of health. With some 7,000 different chemicals, many of which have been known to cause cancer, cigarette smoke can shorter your lifespan while increasing the risk of disease and illness. But there's new evidence indicating that smoking can affect other aspects of your life, such as your ability to find a job as well as how much money you earn.

For the study, researchers from Stanford University analyzed 251 job seekers in San Francisco from between 2013 and 2015, roughly half of whom were smokers while the other half were non-smokers. Researchers discovered that after a year had passed, twice as many nonsmokers were able to score jobs. That alone should be reason enough for smokers to kick the habit if they haven't done so already. But researchers also discovered a correlation between smoking and how much workers earned.

Judith Prochaska, the study's lead author, noted that smokers earned roughly $5 per hour less than their nonsmoking counterparts.

"Among smokers re-employed at one year, on average, their hourly income was $5 less relative to reemployed nonsmokers: $15.10 versus $20.27, a 25.5 percent difference," said Judith Prochaska of Stanford University.

Some people may turn their head at the thought of being rejected for a job position based solely on their smoking status, but there's actually a viable reason for why employers use this criteria in their hiring decisions. Workers who smoke typically have more health problems, require more frequent breaks, and take more days off work when compared to workers who do not smoke. Therefore, conventional wisdom should lead you to believe that it's in the employer's best interest to hire nonsmokers.

Of course, this isn't the only study indicating that smokers have a harder time getting hired than nonsmokers. A separate study of 52,000 construction workers found that 11% of them were unemployed, while just 6.4% of nonsmokers were unemployed. Studies such as this are just another reason why smokers should make quitting a priority. If not for your health, do it for your job/career.

This study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association's JAMA Internal Medicine.