Do people who exercise earn more?

You have probably heard that working out makes you more successful at work. What does the research actually show? Let’s look at studies from the United States, Germany and Sweden.

What we know

In the United States, Vasilios Kosteas used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), which follows the same people over many years. People who exercised regularly had wages 6–10% higher than people who did not. Even moderate exercise was linked to higher wages, and the gap was larger for people who exercised frequently.

In Germany, Michael Lechner used the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), covering West Germany from 1984 to 2006. Taking part in sports was associated with sizeable positive differences in long-run earnings and wages, as well as in health and subjective well-being.

A literature review of adult physical activity by Cabane and Lechner found the same direction in almost every paper they examined: leisure sports and physical activity were positively related to health, labour market outcomes and well-being.

So across countries the pattern points the same way. People who exercise tend to earn more.

How to read it

The key point is that all of these are observational studies. Nobody was randomly assigned to exercise or not.

People who keep exercising may already be healthier, better at managing their time, or more outgoing. Those traits could show up in their pay whether or not they exercise. The researchers use careful statistical methods to adjust for such differences, but they cannot rule them out completely.

A Swedish study by Dan-Olof Rooth makes this concrete. Using fitness tests from military conscription at age 18, he found that fitter men later earned about 4–5% more. When he also accounted for non-cognitive skills, such as persistence and social skills, the premium fell to about 2%. Much of the link seems to come from traits that travel together with fitness, not from fitness itself.

We also have not found any Japanese study on exercise and earnings. Results from the US, Germany and Sweden may not carry over directly to other labour markets.

The honest summary is this: surveys in the US and Germany show that people who exercise tend to earn more. Current research does not show that starting to exercise causes higher pay.

That does not make the studies useless. When several countries, data sets and methods all point the same way, the pattern is worth taking seriously. It simply means we should describe it as a tendency among groups of people, not as a promise to any one person.

A small step for today

If the cause is unclear, is exercise pointless for your career? Not at all. Exercise is also linked to better health and well-being, and there is little downside to doing it.

The practical approach is to start small and skip the pressure:

• Begin with the habit “Moved for 5+ minutes.” Taking the stairs or a short walk counts.
• When that feels easy, add “Walked 8,000+ steps” or “Did strength training.”
• Count the days you did it. Missing a day is fine and does not undo your progress.

Research describes average tendencies, not a forecast of your future. Still, choosing to be someone who moves is something you can do today.

Sources

• [A1] Kosteas (2012) The Effect of Exercise on Earnings: Evidence from the NLSY. Journal of Labor Research.
• [A2] Lechner (2009) Long-run labour market and health effects of individual sports activities. Journal of Health Economics.
• [A3] Rooth (2011) Work out or out of work — The labor market return to physical fitness and leisure sports activities. Labour Economics.
• [A4] Cabane & Lechner (2015) Physical activity of adults: A survey of correlates, determinants, and effects. Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik.