Math And Social Skills Exponentially Raise Earning Potential

Better dust off that abacus!

Study Finds That Math And Social Skills Increase Earning Potential

Math skills and the gift of gab equal bigger checks. Via BusinessInsider:

Being good at math has never been more lucrative.

Are you good at math? Do you get along well with other people? If you can answer “yes” to both of these questions, your earning potential is higher than ever before.

A recent study from the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that individuals who possess both strong math and social skills saw higher earnings over a 20-year period than individuals with only one set of skills, reports the Harvard Business Review. Additionally, the return on these skills is significantly greater today than it was 30 years ago.

To reach this conclusion, the study authors compared the earnings over time of white, male high-school seniors from the class of 1972 with those from the class of 1992, specifically looking at math scores from standardized tests during their senior years, participation in sports, leadership roles, and individual earnings seven years after graduation.

The researchers looked at only white men because their test scores and participation levels remained stable over time, whereas education and access to extracurriculars changed over this period for women and people of color. They also used participation in sports and clubs as a measure of social skills because these activities typically involve teamwork and communication, and provided a stable metric to study effects over time.

High math scores, leadership positions, and a college education all resulted in higher earnings between 1979 and 1999. However, “the trend over time in the earnings premium was strongest among those who were both good at math and engaged in high-school sports or leadership activities,” HBR reports.

Nice! Are you good at math? Might be time to turn that into a fatter check…