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Facts about the cost of stress
• Data given in a Health and Safety Executive report estimated that, “work-related
stress costs UK employers about £353 million to £381 million per annum
(in 1995/1996 prices) and society between £3.7 to £3.8 billion. Since
these calculations were done, the estimated number of days lost due to
stress has more than doubled” (HEALTH AND SAFETY EXECUTIVE [HSE]
(1999. The Costs to Britain of Work Place Accidents & Work-related
Ill Health in 1995/96. HMSO: Norwich. JONES, J. R., HUXTABLE, C. S.,
HODGSON, J. T., & PRICE, M. J., 2003, ‘Management Standards’ and
work-related stress in the UK’ http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/techpart1.pdf
• The UK based mental health charity ‘Mind’ said in 2005, “STRESS
at work is causing depression and anxiety in one in five Britons and
costing the country £100 billion a year in lost output, the mental
health charity Mind said yesterday.” (mind, 15.5.2005, times website; www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article523091.ece
• The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work found that “in 2002, the annual economic cost of work-related stress in the EU-15 was estimated at 20 billion Euros”(EASHW2002, http://osha.europa.eu/en/topics/stress
• In 2005, The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work found that, “Stress is the second most reported work-related health problem, affecting 22% of workers from EU 27” (EASHW,2005,
http://osha.europa.eu/en/topics/stress
• The Health and safety commission said, “In
2005/6 work related stress, depression and anxiety cost Great Britain
in excess of £530 million. The number of workers who had sought
medical advice for what they believed to be work related stress
increased by 110,000 to an estimated 530,000”(HSC, UK, 7.11.07., http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2007/c07021.htm
• ‘Health Canada’ reports that,“In
regards to the impact on Canadian industry, data reported by Tangri
(2003) show the total cost of mental health costs to be $35 billion
annually”…(tangri,
2003, www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/occup-travail/costs_stress-couts/inventory-recension_1-eng.php
….“In
parallel, absences related to family and work life conflicts alone are
estimated to cost Canadian society about $3.5 billion each year” (Duxbury & Higgins, 2001, www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/occup-travail/costs_stress-couts/inventory-recension_1-eng.php
• The American Institute of Stress says, “Job
stress is also costly, with an annual price tag for U.S. businesses of
over $300 billion annually due to increased absenteeism, employee
turnover, diminished productivity, medical, legal and insurance
expenses and Workers' Compensation payments.”(The American Institute of Stress, 2008, http://www.stress.org/topic-workplace.htm
• The American Institute of Stress also states that in the United States, “about 1 million people are absent from work each day because of stress”. (American Institute of Stress, 2004, www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/occup-travail/costs_stress-couts/inventory-recension_1-eng.php
• The International Labour Organisation states in its ‘Programme on Safety and Health at Work and the Environment (SafeWork)’ report, that, “In
Australia, the Federal Assistant Minister for Industrial relations
estimated the cost of occupational stress to be around A$30 million in
1994”. Figures and prices are over twenty years old, but still
staggeringly high. (The International Labour Organisation states in its
‘Programme on Safety and Health at Work and the Environment (SafeWork), European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, 2000. www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/stress/whatis.htm#costof
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