People who have an active sex life receive better salaries, according to a new study by the Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK.
Researchers conducted a survey of 7,500 Greek adults to find out the relationship between having an active sex life and the level of productivity at work.
Dr. Nick Drydakis, an economics reader and lead author of the research, said that people who have sex two to three times a week earn a 4.5 percent higher pay than co-workers who do not.
The study also revealed that health-impaired employees, who actively engage in regular sexual activities, make 1.5 percent more money than people with the similar symptoms who are not sexually active.
Drydakis and his team pointed to common psychological theories to help explain how people become successful at work when they are satisfied at home.
"Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory claims that the happier and more fulfilled individuals are in their lives, the more productive and successful they will be in their work, translating to higher wages," Drydakis said.
"The theory concludes that people need to love and be loved, sexually and non-sexually, by others. In the absence of these elements, people may become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety and depression—all factors that can affect their working life."
Based on the study, there is a correlation between how often people have sex and how much they earn at work, and it is more often seen in adults between 26 to 50 years old.
The results also showed that people who engage in heterosexual intercourse do not necessarily receive a higher or lower salary compared to those who prefer a homosexual relationship. The amount of salary, however, seems to be higher for health-impaired employees who have an active sex life.
Drydakis said that health is one of the most important factors that can affect an individual's sexual activity, whether positively or negatively.
Other findings of the research revealed poor health can affect how active an individual can be sexually. Employees with disabilities tend to lose their interest in having sexual activities by 13 percent compared to employees without disabilities. Those with heart ailments, in particular, become 11.4 percent less active sexually. These include individuals with angina or coronary heart disease.
People with psychological issues also become less sexually active by as much as 3.7 percent.
Drydakis believes that their study was able to provide better understanding on the relationship between health and sexual activity.
The study is published in the International Journal of Manpower.
Photo: Pedro Ribeiro Simões | Flickr
