--- title: Study: Drug Testing Boots African-American Employment description: African-American employment increased between 7% and 30% in states with a high prevalence of drug testing. canonical: https://time.com/104119/drug-testing-african-american-jobs/ author: Bijan Stephen article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-18T20:33:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:09:45.952Z og:title: Study: Drug Testing Boots African-American Employment og:description: African-American employment increased between 7% and 30% in states with a high prevalence of drug testing. og:url: https://time.com/104119/drug-testing-african-american-jobs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Study: Drug Testing Boots African-American Employment twitter:description: African-American employment increased between 7% and 30% in states with a high prevalence of drug testing. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Study: Drug Testing Boosts African-American Employment by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen May 18, 2014 8:33 PM UTC by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen May 18, 2014 8:33 PM UTC It’s no secret that America’s war on drugs hasn’t gone well, at least in [economic](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/business/in-rethinking-the-war-on-drugs-start-with-the-numbers.html?pagewanted=all&%5Fr=0) and [racial](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/us/05cnd-disparities.html) terms. Labor economist Abigail Wozniak [investigated](http://www.nber.org/papers/w20095?%5Fga=1.242452226.1205361971.1397085400) the relationship between race, drug testing, and employment, publishing a paper in the National Bureau of Economic Research with her findings. Surprisingly, she found that the rise of drug testing actually _boosts_ African-American employment by a significant percentage: In states with a high prevalence of drug testing, African-American employment increased between 7% and 30%, while wages increased between 1.4 and 13%. “A common assumption is that the rise of drug testing must have had negative consequences for black employment,” she writes. “However, the rise of employer drug testing may have benefited African-Americans by enabling non-using blacks to prove their status to employers.” In case you missed it: She’s saying that, because African-Americans are perceived to use more drugs, drug testing enables them to objectively prove to employers that they don’t, which therefore results in increased employment. Here’s [Quartz](http://qz.com/210345/when-us-companies-drug-test-they-wind-up-hiring-more-black-people/): --- > “” --- Ugh. Study: Drug Testing Boots African-American Employment ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/104119/drug-testing-african-american-jobs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/104119/drug-testing-african-american-jobs/"},"headline":"Study: Drug Testing Boosts African-American Employment","datePublished":"2014-05-18T20:33:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:45.952Z","description":"A paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research says that because African-Americans are perceived to use more drugs, drug testing enables them to objectively prove to employers that they don’t","url":"https://time.com/104119/drug-testing-african-american-jobs/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society","Racism","war on drugs"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bijan Stephen","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/104119/drug-testing-african-american-jobs/","name":"Study: Drug Testing Boosts African-American Employment"}}]}] ```