The nation's largest employers need to learn a lesson from America's highest well-being cities. Because if they do, they could save big-time annually in health care and absenteeism costs — to the tune of $22 billion.
That's the finding from Gallup-Healthways, who found that could be the annual savings for the nation's largest employers if a proportion of their employees quit smoking and shed some pounds, matching the smoking and obesity rates of America's healthiest cities. Savings would come from reductions in absenteeism due to poor health and smoking breaks and from lower health care costs.
According to Gallup, a little more than 19 percent of all U.S. workers smoke. Cutting that number to 13.6 percent — the rate the top cities for well-being enjoy — would result in an estimated savings of $13.7 billion from reduced absenteeism and $3.7 billion from reduced health care costs each year.
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