Sick Leave Due to Stress, What are the Costs for Dutch Employers?

Summary & key facts

Researchers used records from a large Dutch occupational health service to measure how long sick leave for stress-related illnesses lasts and what it costs employers. They looked at 17,338 episodes of sick leave (from 16,676 employees) that started in 2015–2017 and ended by 2019. On average one episode lasted 101 working days and cost employers about €19,151. Burn-out caused the longest absences (163 working days on average) and the highest average cost (€30,770). The data come from workers who saw an occupational physician and reflect costs under Dutch rules that require employers to keep paying wages during sick leave, so the results describe employer burden in this dataset and time period

Key facts:

• The study analysed 17,338 episodes of sick leave due to stress-related illness among 16,676 employees recorded by a Dutch occupational health service.
• Average duration of one episode of sick leave for stress-related illness was 101 working days.
• Average cost to the employer per sick-leave episode was €19,151, calculated using age- and gender-specific price weights.
• Women accounted for most episodes and were absent on average 37 working days longer per episode than men.
• Of the stress-related diagnoses studied, burn-out had the longest average absence: 313 calendar days, which the authors converted to 163 working days, with an average employer cost of €30,770.
• Stress-related illnesses included tension complaints, burn-out, overexertion, and other reactions to stress, as recorded by occupational physicians.
• The sample came from Arbo Unie, an occupational health service that keeps records for about 1.24 million Dutch workers; the study only included episodes that started in 2015–2017 and ended by 2019, so very long cases that continued past 201

Topics

Employment and Welfare Studies Occupational Health and Safety Research Workplace Health and Well-being

Categories

General Health Professions Health Professions Health Sciences

Tags

Absenteeism Demography Medicine Physical therapy Psychology Sick leave Social psychology Sociology