{"id":1102,"date":"2013-06-05T14:34:24","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T20:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theloungeisback.wordpress.com\/?p=1102"},"modified":"2014-01-10T17:53:12","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T17:53:12","slug":"smokers-cost-employers-an-average-of-5800-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=1102","title":{"rendered":"Smokers cost employers an average of $5,800 a year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"US-businesses-pay-about-6000-extra-for-workers-who-smoke\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yoiks, I can only imagine the comments at the old Smokers\u2019 Club (I haven\u2019t a clue if that is even around anymore. It\u2019s been years since I looked.) on this story!<\/p>\n

According to an Ohio State University researcher<\/a> \u2014 between absenteeism caused by added health problems and lost productivity due to smoking breaks, smokers cost companies on the average of $5,800 a year and possibly up to $10,000 a year.<\/p>\n

Let me do some math on that smoking break thing. Say a smoker, not too heavy of a smoker, takes four smoking breaks during an eight-hour shift. Say each break takes 10 minutes. That\u2019s 40 minutes a day in lost productivity. That\u2019s 200 minutes a week. That\u2019s 10,000 minutes a year.<\/p>\n

10,000 minutes = 160 hours a year. Say a smoker makes a relatively modest wage, $15 an hour, that comes up to $2,400 a year in lost productivity in of itself.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the OSU numbers. Pretty close to what I did in my head:<\/p>\n

The OSU researchers\u2019 calculations show low productivity due to excess absenteeism costs employers, on average, $517 a year per smoking employee and working while sick cost $462. Smoking breaks tack on $3,077 and excess healthcare another $2,056.<\/p>\n

There is a LOT of data showing smokers increase everyone\u2019s insurance premiums, which is why many employers now add a premiums surcharge for smokers and some companies won\u2019t hire smokers, period. So, I think that $5,800 a year number, while it sounds surprising, is totally plausible.<\/p>\n

The study was published in Tobacco Control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yoiks, I can only imagine the comments at the old Smokers\u2019 Club (I haven\u2019t a clue if that is even around anymore. It\u2019s been years since I looked.) on this story! According to an Ohio State University researcher \u2014 between absenteeism caused by added health problems and lost productivity due to smoking breaks, smokers cost … Continue reading Smokers cost employers an average of $5,800 a year<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[57,1,79],"tags":[137,174,198],"class_list":["post-1102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smoking-2","category-uncategorized","category-workplace-smoking","tag-insurance-premiums","tag-smoking","tag-workplace-smoking-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/US-businesses-pay-about-6000-extra-for-workers-who-smoke.jpg?fit=630%2C354&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-hM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":841,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=841","url_meta":{"origin":1102,"position":0},"title":"Workplaces banning smokers — period. Is that cool?","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is something I've written about before, employers not only banning people from smoking on the premises, but refusing to hire smokers and firing people for being smokers. This USA Today article looks at this. There are a growing number of companies that are doing this, even including nicotine in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anti-tobacco campaign"","block_context":{"text":"Anti-tobacco campaign","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/mizoram-no-smoking.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3365,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3365","url_meta":{"origin":1102,"position":1},"title":"Study: Risk of heart attack drops to normal 15 years after most smokers quit","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"June 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"An There's an interesting new study out that states that within 15 years of quitting smoking, smokers see their risk of heart attack drop to the same level as non-smokers. The study states that these conditions apply for an average smoker. 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