Each worker who smokes costs his or her employer about $6,000 more a year than a nonsmoker, according to a new study.
Researchers looked at the costs associated with smoke breaks on company time, reduced productivity because of nicotine addiction, excess absenteeism and greater overall health-care expenses.
But the biggest cost, according to the research, is money lost every time employees head outside to smoke.
“When people are taking smoke breaks, that actually adds up to a decent amount of cost to the employer,” said Micah Berman, who performed the research while on the law faculty at Capital University.
On average, he said, smoke breaks cost employers $3,077 each year per employee.
Berman, who will become a professor of health-services management and policy at Ohio State University in August, is the lead author of the study, published yesterday in the online journal Tobacco Control.
He said productivity is further slowed when employees return from smoke breaks because they are thinking about their next smoke break, not the task at hand. That’s an additional $462 per employee each year.
“Even if people are at work, they’re essentially going through nicotine withdrawal,” Berman said. “It actually causes a measurable reduction in productivity.”
Excess health-care costs for self-insured employers accounted for $2,056 per employee who smokes.
Add in $517 for excessive absenteeism and that’s about $6,000 per year, per employee.
Scotts Miracle-Gro doesn’t hire smokers in Ohio, and spokesman Lance Latham said the number of employees who smoke has decreased from 30 percent to about 5 percent since the company adopted the ban.
“Overall, our health-care cost increases and premium increases have trended below the national average,” Latham said. “We think that’s a combination of our tobacco and wellness policies.”
Hollywood Casino Columbus also doesn’t hire smokers.
“I think anything a company does relates to the cost benefit of it,” said spokesman Bob Tenenbaum. “I think everybody agrees … healthier employees lead to lower health-care costs.”
Berman and coauthors at Ohio State used published data to estimate the annual employer costs associated with smoking.
Overall, smokers pay roughly 14 percent more in premiums for individual-based health insurance, said Nate Purpura, spokesman for eHealthInsurance.
Lisa Jewell, 49, took a smoke break from her state job yesterday outside the Rhodes Tower. The West Side resident said she is healthy and uses allotted breaks.
“I find it discriminatory,” Jewell said of employers who won’t hire smokers. “I’m not doing something that’s against the law.” SOURCE
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