Does more sex lead to higher wages?

The number on your paycheck and the number of times you have sex each week might be linked, says a new paper by Nick Drydakis, an economics lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England.

Drydakis surveyed 7,500 people between the ages of 26 and 50, and found that those who had sex four or more times a week made 5 percent more in wages. He also found that those not having any sex made 3.2 percent less than those having at least some. Drydakis' results applied with both gay and straight couples, and didn't change based on factors like education or job type.

So why is the sexier life linked to the wealthier life? There seem to be at least two ways of looking at it.

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The first is that having a lot of sex can, in fact, lead to a higher paycheck. "Contemporary social analysis suggests that health, cognitive and non-cognitive skills, and personality are important factors that affect the wage level," the study says. "Sexual activity may also be of interest to social scientists, since sexual activity is considered to be a barometer for health, quality of life, well-being, and happiness." The idea is that sex may boost your self-esteem, health, and overall happiness — and that those qualities are rewarded with raises.

Of course, the opposite might also be true. The author suggests that people with more in the bank might simply get out more for dates. "It's also possible that making more money makes a person seem more attractive to others. Another hypothesis could be that people with more money are more likely to buy gifts for their significant other," says CBS.

Of course, correlation doesn't mean causation. Plenty of studies have tried to explain why some people are paid more than others. Another recent study from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the London School of Economics showed that people who broke the rules as teens were more likely to become higher-earning entrepreneurs as adults.

And a study from 2011 showed that attractive people are likely to earn an average of 3 percent to 4 percent more than people with below-average looks, adding up to an average of $230,000 more over a lifetime.

So another conclusion could be: Some people have all the luck.