“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,” Judith Prochaska of Stanford University and colleagues wrote in their report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s JAMA Internal Medicine.

“Averaging 32 hours per week, this is a deficit exceeding $8,300 annually,” they added.