High cost of missed work days.

The article presents a study on the wage and productivity losses for lost work days incurred by employees due to illness and injury in the U.S. According to a report in the "Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine," the total annual costs of about $63 billion is carried over in lost work and productivity due to illness and injury, base from the 2003 national health survey. The average earnings and productivity losses accounted $1,560 per worker. Moreover, lost work time remains an important and costly problem for employers, even though occupational injuries and illnesses have declined in recent years.