Updated:
Our Nation’s Workplaces: the most important point of leverage for addressing
the serious and related problems of Safety, Health and Substance Addiction.
Employer Substance Abuse Related Expenses
Workplace substance abusers are responsible for:
- Workers' Comp: 50% of All Claims & 5X
More Claims* than Drug Free Peers - Health Benefits: > 300% Higher Cost
and 8X Greater Utilization - Absenteeism: 35% of All Absences and
6X More Truant than Drug Free Peers - Retention: > 30% More Employee Turnover
- Inventory Shrinkage & Theft: 40% Greater
- FAR Greater Incidence of Safety Hazards,
Workplace Accidents, Deaths & Violence
Our Nation's Workplaces are Ground Zero for
Effectively Reducing the U.S. Addiction Rate.
Nothing says this more powerfully than the fact
that more than 75% of all abusers work daily –
with
an average additional employer cost per
abuser in excess of
$10,000 annually.
Just as costly and unsafe is substance related
Presenteeism - present for work but impaired,
due
to mild intoxication or withdrawal. Harvard Business
Review cites presenteeism as 6.5X more costly than
absenteeism, severely impacting co-worker morale.
U.S. Workplace Substance Abuse Now Totals
$250 Billion+ in Annual Expenses and Growing –
due to an Average Substance Abuse Workplace
Prevalence Rate of 13%.
Sources: National Council on Compensation Insurance; U.S. Dept of Labor; SAMHSA Special Congressional Report on Alcohol & Health.
Note: prevalence & costs conservative.