Does Weather Affect Your Earning Potential?

Filed in archive Careers and Money on February 15, 2007

In my third hour of snow blowing yesterday, I began to think about how I was missing work due to the lousy weather conditions and that no one in California had a foot of snow to reckon with. Then I began to think about winter in general, and how here in the Northeast/Midwest (I never know where Cleveland falls; we say Midfwest, others seem to think of us as Northeast) we end up wasting a lot of time in dealing with weather conditions.

Even when it's not snowing, it's often cold, which means at least a coat, maybe gloves and/or a hat. Getting these things on takes extra time, and if you misplace a glove, you can really waste a lot of time. Where it's warm you just walk out the door year-round without a care, save for the few days when you need an umbrella.

And what about driving? On cold days your car might not start, or there will be so much snow that you have to dig it out in order to drive it, or, if you're in a big city, you have to fight for cabs or public transportation.

All these little time wasters add up, and they also take away your concentration from things you need to do to get your job done.

Let's not forget people that have seasonal affective disorder and fall into a depressed funk during the winter months. (Did you ever see the Northern Exposure episode where they all wore little fluorescent visors to increase the light in their lives?)

I was just searching for any studies on the connection between weather and income, and came up empty. So I don't know if my question has an answer. For every comparison I could make between a cold weather city losing out to the riches of Silicon Valley, I could point to poor Mississippi towns that can't compete financially with New York City.

I feel poorer sitting here in the 15 degree weather, but maybe I'm just depressed.