More sick employees reporting to work

Financial pressures are a big reason more sick employees are reporting to work, even if they have paid sick leave, according to a new poll of two presidential swing states.

National Public Radio, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health compiled Heath Care and the Economy in Two Swing States: A Look at Ohio and Florida, examining how financial issues have affected citizens in the two presidential swing states. Soaring health care costs and medical bills have taken a bite out of family finances, forcing people to report to work even though they may be ill.

Of those surveyed, 44% of employees in Florida and 50% in Ohio go to work sick because they’re worried about the financial consequences went to work sick.

“The general level of economic anxiety that workers have today, I think, is evident in these polls, and employers might want to be cognizant of their workforce being very worried about paying their bills,” Kaiser’s vice president of public opinion and survey research Maryann Brodie told SHRM Online.

The data, she added, “should make everyone pause and think how this economy and economic anxiety are affecting the people around them and the people who are working for them.”

More sick employees reporting to work