Employers pay an estimated £4,000 per year extra for each employee who smokes compared to the cost of employing a non-smoker, a new study suggests.
Researchers say the study, published in the Tobacco Control journal, is the first to take a comprehensive look at the financial burden for companies that employ smokers.
By drawing on previous research on the costs of absenteeism, lost productivity, smoke breaks and health care costs, the researchers estimated each employee who smokes costs an employer an average of around £4,000 ($5,816) annually above the cost of a person who never smoked.
Smoke breaks accounted for the highest cost in lost productivity, followed by health-care expenses that exceed insurance costs for non-smokers.
Micah Berman, who led the project at Ohio State University College of Public Health said: "This research should help businesses make better informed decisions about their tobacco policies. We constructed our calculations such that individual employers can plug in their own expenses to get more accurate estimates of their own costs."
The researchers acknowledged providing smoking-cessation programs would be an added cost for employers.
Berman added: "Employers should understand about how difficult it is to quit smoking and how much support is needed. It's definitely not just a cost issue, but employers should be informed about what the costs are when they are considering these policies."
