Smoking employees cost $6,000 a year more, study finds

MSNBC ^ | 06/03/2013 | Maggie Fox

[LonelyCon]

Smokers cost their employers nearly $6,000 a year more than staff who don’t smoke, researchers said on Monday in what they say is the first comprehensive look at the issue. And in what some might see as a dark twist, they’ve taken into account any savings that might come because smokers tend to die younger than non-smokers, drawing less in pension costs. The findings support a growing trend among employers to not only ban smoking in the workplace, but to refuse to hire smokers in the first place, argues Micah Berman of Ohio State University, who led the study.

[LonelyCon]

If a business owner doesn't want to employ people or serve customers based on the choices they make like smoking, getting fat, following a particular religion he doesn't believe in, or being gay, that is not discrimination. It's only only wrong when you discriminate against people who are different through no fault of their own like their race or a disability.

[Buckeye McFrog]

And in what some might see as a dark twist, they’ve taken into account any savings that might come because smokers tend to die younger than non-smokers, drawing less in pension costs.

We have an Actuary in the family. It is a dark, dark science.

[Pollster1]

I’m still waiting for MSNBC to report on the added cost of employing gay men. Is it okay in the MSNBC world to refuse to hire gay men because of their much higher medical expenses (ignoring the ick factor)?

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

How much more a year do jerkball liberals cost an employer; who have to constantly remind each other that everything is George Bush’s fault, who have to discuss how the puddles in the gutter after it rains are signs of climate change, and how we must be sensitive to the lesbian, gay, and transgendered illegal single mothers who are only looking to better themselves; and think they are entitled to spend their employer’s time & resources tweeting each other to make sure they catch ShaLayLay doing the Harlem shuffle on their smartphones while Kim Kardashian pulls small, endangered birds out of her asscrack? How about that study?

[camle]

i call BS.

[wolfman23601]

“It’s only only wrong when you discriminate against people who are different through no fault of their own like their race or a disability.”

So Hooters should be forced to hire me to wait tables? Not my fault I have a penis and no breasts...

[woodbutcher1963]

Our whole traffic department smokes. There are four of them I think they blow about 6 man hours a day, between them standing out in the parking lot.

Plus their section of the office smells like an ashtray.

[Sheapdog]

I call BS on this study. How the heck can one calculate 6,000 dollars more anyway. I grab recklessly grab a smoke every so often and I’ve never cost an employer any more money in twenty years. Unless smokers are taking breaks they shouldn’t be for 30 minutes to an hour a day to smoke when they should be productive I don’t get it. However, people slack off in all kinds of ways.

[Iron Munro]

How does that cost compare with those who engage in high risk homosexual sex that can lead to HIV and AIDS?

If a business or the government is going to be selective based on personal choices that are harmful or detrimental to a person’s health isn’t it discriminatory to consider certain conduct but ignore other, more politically correct, conduct?

[VermiciousKnid]

Bull.

[cincinnati65]

The main thrust of the article is lost productivity due to smoke breaks. No one thought of the impact of coffee breaks, eh?

Also, since the major factor was lost productivity, couldn't you just solve that by letting smokers smoke at their desk?

[camle]

if they’re gonna bemoan a smoke break or two each day for smokers, hows about bathroom breaks? water cooler brakes? or hows about surfing the web brakes?

if ya really don’t wanna have to carp about 2 fifteen minute breaks, let the smoker smoke at his desk.

that’s half the expense right there. bogus, cherry picking of data.

and what if ya don’t smoke at work?

and did you see the diff in pensions? no way those figures are credible.

[ErnBatavia]

“I’ll have your double cheeseburger, chili fries....and a Diet Coke”

[HerrBlucher]

I think they blow about 6 man hours a day, between them standing out in the parking lot.

And that problem was caused by tbe anti smokers who banned smoking in the office while you work.

[surroundedbyblue]

Total crap. Pretty soon you’ll see “gun ownership among employees costs employers $1000000000000 more to ensure”

[Responsibility2nd]

Anymore this is not an employee/employer problem. Since Obamacare has been dumped on us, this is now the Government’s problem.

And we should expect the gubmint to target smokers and over-eaters any minute.

Meanwhile the queers with their unhealthy and dangerous lifestyle... They get a pass.

[New Perspective]

It sounds like you are very respectful of your employer however many others are not. Beside there standard break smokers take additional breaks for smoking.

[Larry Lucido]

Smoking employees cost $6,000 a year more, study finds

There must be a cheaper way to smoke employees. Mesquite wood, perhaps?

[Joe 6-pack]

I’m sure they’d be content to sit at their desks and smoke while they work, but they’ve been forced to go outside by the nanny staters.

Posted from my Verizon phone from the company smoke break area...

[going hot]

Mostly the large ones are hard to place on the rotisserie.

The skinny ones smoke ok.