Analysis: COVID-19 costs employers nearly $1B per week in lost time from work

The cost to employers for absent workers due to COVID-19 is estimated to total more than $78.4 billion over the past 22 months, according to a new analysis from the Integrated Benefits Institute that seeks to quantify the pandemic’s broader productivity impacts. That works out to average weekly losses approaching $1 billion per week.

IBI, a national nonprofit research organization, included in its assessment potential sick leave wages, short-term disability payments, and spending on employee benefits.

Here is how the total of $78.4 billion in costs to employers breaks down:

• Disability wage payments: $16.6 billion
• State disability insurance (specific to California and New York): $2.2 billion
• Sick leave wages: $24.3 billion
• Employee benefits: $35.3 billion

The three states with the highest lost work time costs are California ($9.9 billion), Texas ($6.5 billion), and New York ($5.2 billion), while the top three metro areas with the highest lost work time costs are New York-Newark-Jersey City ($5.6 billion), Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana ($3.7 billion), and Chicago-Naperville-Joliet ($2.3 billion).

“As we continue to adapt and adjust to the new challenges that the Omicron variant brings to employers and suppliers, it’s important now more than ever to look holistically at benefit costs,” IBI President Kelly McDevitt said in a statement. “Medical, pharmacy, mental health, and wellness costs are critically important, but productivity and presenteeism have become a lynchpin to successful attraction, retention, growth, and satisfaction.”

“The true cost of the COVID-19 pandemic to employers is far more than just the expense of workplace sanitization, testing, and masks,” added Joseph Aller, director of research and analytics for IBI. “A holistic view of productivity presents a more accurate overall cost estimation.”

Additionally, IBI researchers estimate that employees who contract COVID-19 will lose a collective $33.3 billion in wages.

IBI also developed an interactive map that models lost work time results from confirmed COVID-19 cases to date. Viewers can access data at the state, metropolitan area and county levels.