According to Stephen Fuller at George Mason University, people who struggle with reading face “a lifetime of economic challenges.” In conjunction with a project sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in the United States, Fuller and other researchers and social scientists discussed the many difficulties encountered by adults who can’t read, and the effects that this has on their earning potential, their health, and their children.

When you can’t read, you can’t participate in the written conversations that make up so much of daily worklife in the 21st century. From e-mail messages to post-it notes left on your desk to reminders scribbled on the whiteboard in the lunchroom, communication happens in many ways on the job, and you’ve got to be able to keep up. While someone who can’t read might be very skilled at the job they’re doing, it’s possible that they’ll miss an important message and create problems for the rest of the team. In the CPB series, reporters interviewed workers around the country and asked about this issue. They talked to skilled welder Matthew Burke and how his inability to read the other workers’ notes led to mistakes and delays in production – and how his new reading skills, gained after he enrolled in a community college, will be responsible for an upcoming 20% increase in his salary.

It’s not just the incomes of the parents that are improved by reading skills; studies show that when parents can read and write, they’re able to help their children in school, and those children generally go on to better and higher-paying jobs. And it’s not just incomes that are improved by these reading skills, either. When you can read, you’re able to follow the prescription written on the bottle of medicine prescribed by your doctor, and you’ll stay healthy and keep your children healthy, too. When you’re healthy, you’re not going to miss as much time as work, and when your children are healthy, they won’t miss school time (and keep you at home taking care of them, which also leads to a loss in work time).

There are many valuable reasons for improving reading skills, and the best part is that once you’ve started on the road to improvement, there’s nothing holding you back from continuing to work on your reading speed and comprehension to boost your abilities and income for the rest of your life.

Read more about “American Graduate: Let’s Make It Happen” on the project website, and you’ll find some useful information on reading improvement programs for adults and children.