$153 BILLION THE REAL COST OF OBESITY IN AMERICA

Full-time workers who are overweight and have other chronic health conditions miss an estimated 450 million additional days of work each year, resulting in $153 billion in lost productivity, according to Gallup.

We looked at this staggering figure at the company level.

Let’s say you’re a boss choosing between one candidate who is fat or suffering from chronic disease and one candidate who is healthy, The unhealthy worker will miss an extra 20 days of work each year on average.

Hiring the unhealthy worker will cost your company an estimated $6,302 in lost productivity.
This cost estimate doesn’t include health costs associated with unhealthy workers. A study from Duke University found that the fattest workers requested seven times as much in medical claims as their fit co-workers.

Based on these calculations, hiring the healthy worker is the obvious choice.
It also becomes apparent that America may need stronger legislation to protect again health discrimination.
Unfortunately the “healthy” workers are rare in America. Eight-six percent of workers are either overweight or suffering from chronic disease.