Wearing a hearing aid can increase your salary by up to $12,000 according to a Better Hearing Institute research article titled, “The Impact of Untreated Hearing Loss on Household Income” by Sergei Kochkin, Ph.D. (For the HTML version of the article, click here) . The researcher gathered data and quantified the relationship between what he calls “treated” and “untreated” hearing loss and a person’s household income as well as its impact on Federal income taxes.

Relationship between hearing loss and household income

Source: The Impact of Untreated Hearing Loss on Household Income

Relationship between hearing loss and household income comparing aided and unaided people

Source: The Impact of Untreated Hearing Loss on Household Income

Kochkin concluded that the decline in income for “unaided” people is cut in half for hearing aid owners. Also, for every 10% reduction in hearing loss (in “deciles”), an unaided and aided person loses approximately $1,000 in income. The research, conducted in 2004, was pretty balanced with 3,840 respondents. All of the respondents were divided equally among the “unaided” and “aided” as well as each level of “decile” loss. While the data is fascinating and most likely true, a few things about the report bothered me or raised unanswered questions.

For example, Kochkin said, “Indeed, hearing loss has been shown to negatively impact nearly every dimension of the human experience including: physical health, emotional and mental health, perceptions of mental acuity, social skills, family relationships, self-esteem not to mention work and school performance.” He also explained that, “…untreated hearing loss results in underachievement on the job.” This sentence along with the tone of the rest of Kochkin’s article implies that the culprit for these problems among deaf and hard of hearing people is their hearing loss. The fault really could lie in the attitudes of perceptions of many hearing people which in turn may foster poor self-esteem in the deaf individual. If every dimension of our human experience is as negatively impacted as Kochkin indicates, then we all would have a difficult time finding reasons to be alive.

In sum, Kochkin wants to repair a perceived problem that was created and perpetuated by the biases and attitudes of hearing people. It is well known that black people and women earn less than their white and male counterparts. Do we see research on disproportionate income levels among races and genders suggesting that Black people undergo surgery to change their skin color and women change their genders (both which are possible today, see skin bleaching and sex reassignment surgery from female to male)? No. Gender and race researchers educate society about the inequity and encourage the implementation of programs or incentives to even the playing field. And they’ve made progress in the last several decades.

The U.S. Census reports that the real median household income between 2002 and 2003 was $43,318. At five deciles, “unaided” people fall below the median household income for the U.S while “aided” people equal the median salary at the lowest decile. I am not confident, though that all “aided” people have salaries above the U.S. median household income. There is something off here.

It is interesting to note that there is no mention of Cochlear Implants in this study. Another researcher could do a follow-up study comparing the U.S. real median household income between hearing people, non-CI users, non-hearing aid users, hearing aid users, and CI users. But let’s take it closer to a true reflection of the qualities that hearing people really look for in a deaf person that may boost their income level. It’s not about whether or not they wear a hearing aid or Cochlear Implant; it all depends on whether they have intelligible speech and how well they can lip-read and/or listen.

It’s no secret that hearing people in general gravitate towards deaf people who are fluent speakers and understand them/hear them well. For instance, I’ve seen people with Cochlear Implants who hearing people struggle to understand while a deaf person with hearing aids is able to articulate him or herself better than the CI user. Each person could be surveyed or evaluated for their speaking/and listening comprehension skills and their salaries compared. Perhaps then, the true divergence between salaries, a person’s combined speaking and lip-reading/listening skills, would be more evident?

The price of hearing aids and the lack of insurance coverage is another story. Could we use this study as justification for insuring hearing aids? Well, according to a 2004 article about purchasing hearing aids, the average cost of hearing aids is $2,300. So if we decide to insure the full cost of hearing aids for all 24 million unaided people, it would cost a grand total of $55 billion. That would boost the overall earnings of all deaf and hard of hearing people by $122 billion according to Kochkin. He also says that the $122 billion translates to a Federal increase tax income of $18 billion (it seems like the Federal government is taking a higher proportion than that out of my paycheck though). This would be good for deaf and hard of hearing people and the Federal government, but it won’t appeal to insurance companies. What about Cochlear Implants? Well, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders a Cochlear Implant is about $60,000. Implanting every “unaided” deaf person would total $1.44 trillion. Of course, all of this is assuming that every deaf person consents to a free hearing aid or Cochlear Implant and that every device works as advertised (which we know is not true). Even after the person becomes a fully-fledged member of the “aided” society, the salary will still not become equal to that of hearing people. Will hearing people also extend the amount of respect that their “aided” colleagues deserve?

I have a better suggestion, why don’t we take that $55 billion and invest it in educational programs and tax incentives for businesses to hire and promote deaf and hard of hearing people. Once the people are hired, then businesses will realize that their attitudes and biases serve as the actual barrier, not the employee’s deafness. Hearing people don’t care about deafness; they care more about being able to communicate freely without barriers.

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