1The Cost of Time Off Work in Australia *

It is widely accepted in Australia that absenteeism costs Australian employers billions of dollars each year. In part this stems from the view that a large majority of the Australian workforce use their full sick leave entitlement each year, and from crude ’back of the envelope ’ estimates provided by employers and sensationalized in the media. In this article an attempt is made to quantify the costs of absenteeism to Australian industry in a more rigorous manner. In particular, data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is used in conjunction with survey data collected by the author from a sample of both employers and employees. Given a number of assumptions it is concluded that absence from work cost Australian employers just over $7 billion during 1990