Top Health Concerns on the Job

From scienceblogs.com : In a new national survey, about one in every four U.S. workers rates their workplace as just “fair” or “poor” in providing a healthy working environment. And employees in low-paying jobs typically report worse working conditions than those in higher -paying jobs – in fact, nearly half of workers in low-paying jobs say they face “potentially dangerous” conditions on the job.

Released earlier this month, results from the new Workplace and Health survey are based on responses from a nationally representative sample of more than 1,600 adult workers who were interviewed via phone during the first month of 2016.  Overall, the survey, which was conducted by researchers of NPR, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, found that four in 10 working adults say their current job impacts their health, with 28 per cent reporting that impact as positive and 16 per cent as negative. Workers who were most likely to say their jobs negatively impact their health were those living with a disability, those in dangerous jobs and low -paying jobs, those working 50 or more hours per week, and employees in the retail sector.

“Every year, U.S. businesses lose more than $225 billion because of sick and absent workers,” said Robert Wood Johnson President and CEO Risa Lavizzo- Mourey in a news release about the survey. “But I believe that business drives culture change and with them on board we can succeed in building a culture of health in America. It’s not a hard connection to make. In many companies as much as 50 per cent of profits are eaten up by health care costs.”