Led by a UF College of Public Health and Health Professions researcher, the study examined data collected over two decades from people who stutter in order to evaluate how stuttering may affect job-related outcomes over time. Findings appear in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

Income disparities were evident at all income ranges and particularly at the $100,000 annual salary level, where people who stutter were nearly four times less likely than those who don’t to earn $100,000 or more. People who stutter were nearly 25% less likely to report being satisfied in their jobs with dissatisfaction increasing over time.

“Job satisfaction may not seem like a great indicator of employment outcomes because it doesn’t necessarily dictate your income level, but job satisfaction is incredibly important from an economic perspective, because it relates to job turnover and retention, which are important economic indicators and characteristics that create a stable, ready and productive labor force,” said lead author and health economist Molly Jacobs, Ph.D., an associate professor of health services research, management and policy. “Working Americans spend a substantial portion of their lives at work. Therefore, it was surprising to see that the majority of those respondents with stuttering had minimal job satisfaction, leading us to believe that they were most likely unhappy and unfulfilled at work.”

Stuttering is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects an estimated 3 million Americans. Up to a third of young children will experience stuttering and in most cases, stuttering will resolve by age 5 or 6. Between 3% and 5% of people who stutter as children will continue to stutter as adults. While there is currently no cure for stuttering, there are treatments available to help improve speech fluency and experts suggest those treatments should continue to be made available to adults.

As young adults who stutter enter the workforce, they may select or be steered toward careers that require less verbal communication, a phenomenon known as role entrapment.

“Individuals who have or perceive themselves to have difficulty speaking or communicating may gravitate toward jobs that are not outward facing and do not require regular dialogue, contact, or discourse with others,” Jacobs said. “Unfortunately, prominent, interactive jobs that require more face-to-face communication may also offer higher compensation.”

For the study, Jacobs and her colleagues, Hope Gerlach-Houck, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, of Western Michigan University, and Patrick Briley, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, of East Carolina University, analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The nationally representative study, which follows participants over decades, collects data on respondents’ social, economic, psychological, and physical well-being with contextual data on family, neighborhood, community, school, friendships, peer groups, and romantic relationships.

The team found that in their late teens and early 20s, participants who stutter were less likely to report they expected to attend college or earn a middle-class income. A later wave of surveys conducted when participants were in their late 30s and early 40s, a time when people tend to enter an upward slope in earnings trajectory, found those earlier responses had served as a kind of prediction for job outcomes. People who stutter reported significantly lower income than people who do not stutter and were less likely to have graduated from college.

There are likely multiple causes for these labor inequities, the researchers say, including discrimination, self-stigmatization, and even frustration and exhaustion from the act of stuttering itself. While more research is needed to understand these factors, the current study’s findings point toward a significant need for continued treatment and resources for adults who stutter, Jacobs said.

And there is something we all can do to make the workplace a more supportive environment for people with speech fluency issues, she said.

“Many of us have spoken with someone who has an issue with fluency,” Jacobs said. “It’s important to be patient. We have this tendency to want someone to hurry up or respond with immediacy. It can be a natural tendency for individuals to want to speak for them, or interrupt them if there’s a hesitation. But that doesn’t really benefit you or your coworker who has a fluency issue in any way. If someone has a verbal hesitation we need to exercise the patience to allow them the time they need. Time is an inexpensive resource when we think about the value that all individuals can add to the workplace.”