Mental health, absenteeism and earnings at a large manufacturing worksite
✍ Scribed by Michael T. French; Gary A. Zarkin
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 78 KB
- Volume
- 1
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1091-4358
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Background:
A few recent studies have examined the relationship between mental illness and labor market variables. The findings are inconsistent, however, and leave unanswered many questions concerning both the nature and magnitude of the relationship.
Aims of the Study:
A recently available worksite-based data set is analyzed to explore the relationship between symptoms of emotional and psychological problems and employee absenteeism and earnings among employees at a large US worksite.
Methods:
The analysis was based on data collected through a random and anonymous survey of workers at a large US manufacturing worksite. Two measures of absenteeism are combined-days absent during the past 30 days due to sickness or injury and days absent during the past 30 days because the employee did not want to be at work-to create both a dichotomous (i.e., ever absent) and a continuous (i.e., number of days absent) absenteeism variable. Annual earnings were measured as personal earnings from the primary job. Various statistical models were tested to determine the independent and joint (with alcohol and illicit drug use) relationship between symptoms of emotional problems and labor market variables.
Results:
The analysis consistently finds that workers who report symptoms of emotional/psychological problems have higher absenteeism and lower earnings than otherwise similar coworkers. This finding is robust to model specification and to the inclusion of comorbid conditions such as alcohol and illicit drug use.
Discussion: This study contributes new information to the literature in this area by estimating the effects of emotional/psychological symptoms on two important labor market variables: absenteeism and earnings. Several specifications of the absenteeism and earnings equations were estimated to test the independent effect of emotional symptoms and the joint effects of emotional symptoms and other comorbid conditions. The results suggest that employers should consider the productivity losses associated with workers' mental health when designing worksite-based programs such as employee assistance programs (EAPs).