TY - JOUR
T1 - Why are recovering substance abuse counselors paid less?
AU - Olmstead, Todd A.
AU - Johnson, J. Aaron
AU - Roman, Paul M.
AU - Sindelar, Jody L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Todd A. Olmstead is affiliated with University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT, USA. J. Aaron Johnson is affiliated with the Center for Research on Behavioral Health and Human Services Delivery, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA. Paul M. Roman is affiliated with the Center for Research on Behavioral Health and Human Services Delivery, and the Department of Sociology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA. Jody L. Sindelar is affiliated with the Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA and the National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, USA. Address correspondence to: Todd A. Olmstead, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT 06030-1410 (E-mail: [email protected]). The authors gratefully acknowledge research support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant Nos. R01DA14471, R01DA13110 and R01DA14482). The authors also thank Meg Wise and Suzanne Collins for their insights.
PY - 2007/5/31
Y1 - 2007/5/31
N2 - The goal of this study is to determine why recovering substance abuse counselors are paid less, on average and controlling for other factors, than nonrecovering substance abuse counselors. The data come from the 2002-2003 wave of the National Treatment Center Study and consist of 1,487 full-time counselors from nationally representative samples of public and private substance abuse treatment programs in the United States. We use ordinary least squares regression models to estimate the differential impacts of numerous personal and program characteristics on the self-reported annual salaries of recovering and nonrecovering counselors. We found that differential returns to a college degree explain the vast majority of the difference in pay by counselor recovery status. Compared to nonrecovering counselors, recovering counselors receive, on average and controlling for other factors, $2,580 less per year for a college degree. Several possible explanations for this result are discussed, including the possibility that recovering counselors are willing to accept lower pay as a reflection of their calling to this work.
AB - The goal of this study is to determine why recovering substance abuse counselors are paid less, on average and controlling for other factors, than nonrecovering substance abuse counselors. The data come from the 2002-2003 wave of the National Treatment Center Study and consist of 1,487 full-time counselors from nationally representative samples of public and private substance abuse treatment programs in the United States. We use ordinary least squares regression models to estimate the differential impacts of numerous personal and program characteristics on the self-reported annual salaries of recovering and nonrecovering counselors. We found that differential returns to a college degree explain the vast majority of the difference in pay by counselor recovery status. Compared to nonrecovering counselors, recovering counselors receive, on average and controlling for other factors, $2,580 less per year for a college degree. Several possible explanations for this result are discussed, including the possibility that recovering counselors are willing to accept lower pay as a reflection of their calling to this work.
KW - Pay differentials
KW - Recovering counselors
KW - Substance abuse treatment
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U2 - 10.1300/J465v28n01_05
DO - 10.1300/J465v28n01_05
M3 - Article
C2 - 19263560
AN - SCOPUS:65349165693
SN - 0889-7077
VL - 28
SP - 31
EP - 44
JO - Substance Abuse
JF - Substance Abuse
IS - 1
ER -