This study examines whether sickness history affects annual earnings and/or hourly wages in Sweden. If poor health makes people less productive, previous sickness is expected to have a negative effect on hourly wages. If poor health reduces people’s working capacity, but not their productivity, it is expected to decrease the hours worked, which implies lower annual earnings and no change in their hourly wage. The results indicate that people who are healthy in the current year but have a longer spell of sickness in previous years have lower earnings than persons who have no record of long-term sickness, and that the effect goes through hours of work rather than the wage rate.