Absenteeism at Work Due to Financial Stress

Anna and Emily – I

Short animation showing how financial stress leads to absenteeism at work.

What is absenteeism?

Absenteeism is when an employee routinely does not show up at work or is late to work, often takes long breaks or leaves early from work. The reason of absenteeism is not necessarily irresponsibility, instead the common reason for missing work is health, childcare, family issues, stress and depression. In fact, depression is the leading reason for missing work, twice as likely the reason for absenteeism from work¹.

What is presenteeism?

Presenteeism is the problem when an employee shows up at work but because of health or other reasons, is not fully productive. In fact studies show that presenteeism affects individual productivity by one-third or more. Making presenteeism not only difficult to identify but also costlier to businesses than absenteeism².

The Cost of Absenteeism

The cost of absenteeism and presenteeism are enormous. According to Work Force Institute, the cost of absenteeism of hourly workers can add to more than 7% of payroll ³.

Financial Stress

According to the Federal Reserve Bureau Report on Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households May 2015, 90 million Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. And 47% of Americans have less than $400 in savings for emergencies. And according to APA 71% of employees have some financial stress. These are epidemic levels of financial stress, and no one is immune to it.

Fee Traps and Debt Traps

Debt is the single biggest source of financial stress plaguing Americans – maxed out credit cards, overdrawn bank accounts, outrageous payday, and title loans. Unfortunately, all these products are designed to trap people in chronic fees and debt cycles. Even though regulators are trying to provide protection to consumers, the fact is that 12 million families fall in the debt traps of short term payday loans each year because they lack a savings buffer.

The PayActiv Financial Wellness Solution

We at PayActiv have been deeply affected by these issues and have made it our mission to help end financial stress for working people. We believe no hard working person should ever have to pay predatory fees for access to cash, pay bills, transfer funds.

We have invented a FinTech solution, which works with all existing HR and payroll systems, has no additional cost to the business, adds zero-debt to an employee. And it is the most impactful financial wellness service in the entire industry today.  Learn how you can offer this service to your employees as a voluntary benefit.

¹ American Journal of Psychiatry (May 2001)
² https://hbr.org/2004/10/presenteeism-at-work-but-out-of-it
³ https://www.workforceinstitute.org/wp-content/themes/revolution/docs/Absenteeism-Bottom-Line.pdf