Workers who use spreadsheets and who program earn more than similar workers who do neither

Prior work showed that in 2001 and 2003, workers in America who used spreadsheets or databases, and who did programming, earned 9 to 13% more than similar workers who did not use spreadsheets nor did programming. Such a fact, if still true, could help motivate workers to do programming and/or to create spreadsheets. This paper presents a study replicating these analyses using 2012 data. The results show that workers in America who used spreadsheets and who did programming earned approximately 10% more than similar workers who did neither (controlling for employment and demographic characteristics). These results highlight the potential fruitfulness of further research aimed at quantifying the personal financial benefits of using spreadsheets and doing programming.