Alcohol and Other Drugs in the Workplace

An Overview

• 11.9% of the American workforce reports heavy drinking, defined as drinking five or more drinks per occasion on five or more days in the past 30 days.¹

• Up to 40% of industrial fatalities and 47% of Industrial injuries can be linked to alcohol consumption and alcoholism.² (For more information, see NCADD's Fact Sheet on Alcoholism and Alcohol-Related Problems.)

• 75% of workers paid on an hourly basis at one manufacturing plant reported that It was easy for them to drink at their work stations. This group included assembly line workers, electricians and machinists.³

• 70% of all current adult illegal drug users are employed.⁴

• 63% of firms responding to a 1991 survey were engaged in some sort of drug testing, a 200% increase since 1987.⁵

The Cost

• Alcoholism cost employers an estimated $33 billion in reduced productivity in 1988; other drug use cost an additional $7.2 billion in reduced productivity.⁶

• Absenteeism among alcoholics or problem drinkers is 3.8 to 8.3 times greater than normal⁷ and up to 16 times greater among all employees with alcohol and other drug-related problems.⁸ Drug-using employees use three times as many sick benefits as other workers. They are five times more likely to file a workmen's compensation claim.⁹

• Non-alcoholic members of alcoholics' families use ten times as much sick leave as members of families In which alcoholism Is not present.¹⁰

• 43% of CEOs responding to one survey estimated that use of alcohol and other drugs cost them 1% to 10% of payroll.¹¹

Employee Assistance Programs

• For every dollar they invest In an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), employers generally save anywhere from $5 to $16. The average annual cost for an EAP ranges from $12 to $20 per employee.¹²

General Motors Corporation's EAP saves the company $37 million per year -- $3,700 for each of the 10,000 employees enrolled in the program.¹³

United Airlines estimates that it has a $16.95 return for every dollar invested in employee assistance.¹⁴

Northrop Corporation saw a 43% increase in the productivity of each of its first 100 employees to enter an alcohol treatment program. After three years' sobriety. the average savings for each was nearly $20,000.¹⁵

Philadelphia Police Department employees undergoing treatment reduced their sick days by an average of 38% and their injured days by 62%.¹⁶

Oldsmoblie's Lansing, Michigan plant saw the following results in the year after its alcoholic employees underwent treatment: lost man-hours declined by 49%, health care benefits by 29%, leaves by 56%, grievances by 78%, disciplinary problems by 63% and accidents by 82%.¹⁷

• While roughly 9O% of the Fortune 500 companies have established EAP's,¹⁸ this percentage is much lower among smaller companies. Only 9% of businesses with fewer than 50 employees have EAP programs. 90% of U.S. businesses fall into this category.¹⁹

Treatment Issues

• Research indicates that alcoholism treatment can yield significant reductions in total health care costs and utilization for an alcoholic and his or her family.²⁰

• Less than 1/3 of one percent of employed persons are receiving treatment for alcoholism and other drug dependence.²¹

• A recent survey reports that nearly nine in ten employers limit benefits for alcoholism, other drug dependence and mental disorders despite the fact that 52% of the survey participants could not say how much it cost them to Provide treatment for these diseases.²²

Sources
¹National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Main Findings 1990, 1991, p.94. ²M. Bernstein, J.J. Mahoney, "Management Perspectives on Alcoholism: The Employer's Stake in Alcoholism Treatment," Occupational Medicine, Vol.4, No.2 (1989), pp.223-232. ³G. Ames, W. Delaney, "Minimization of Workplace Alcohol Problems: The Supervisor's Role," Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, Research Society on Alcoholism, Vol.16, No.2 (April 1992), p.185. ⁴National Institute on Drug Abuse, "Research on Drugs and the Workplace," NIDA Capsules, June 1990, p.1. ⁵"1991 AMA Survey on Workplace Drug Testing and Drug Abuse Policies," American Management Association Research Reports, Eric Greenberg, ed., p.1. ⁶D.P. Rice, S. Kelman, L.S. Miller and S. Dunmeyer, The Economic Costs of Alcohol and Drug Abuse and Mental Illness. Report submitted to the Office of Financing and Coverage Policy of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. San Francisco, CA: Institute for Health and Aging, University of California, 1990, p.26. ⁷Bernstein and Mahoney. ⁸U.S. Department of Labor (USDL), What Works: Workplaces Without Drugs, August 1990, p.3. ⁹Thomas E. Backer, Ph.D., Strategic Planning for Workplace Drug Abuse Programs, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1987, p.4. ¹⁰Bernstein and Mahoney. ¹¹National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP), Treatment Is the Answer: A White Paper on the Cost Effectiveness of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency Treatment, March 1991, p.1. ¹²USDL, What Works: Workplaces Without Drugs, p.17. ¹³ASIS O.P. Norton Information Resources Center, Substance Abuse: A Guide to Workplace Issues, August 1990, p.23. ¹⁴Ibid. ¹⁵D. Campbell and M. Graham, Drugs and Alcohol in the Workplace: A Guide for Managers, (New York: Facts on File Publications, 1988), p.9. ¹⁶lbid. ¹⁷lbid. ¹⁸Thomas R. Burke, "The Economic Impact of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism," Public Health Reports, Vol.103, No.6 (Nov/Dec.1988), p.567. ¹⁹U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, Report 760: Survey of Employer Anti-drug Programs, January 1989, p.2. ²⁰H.D. Holder, J.O. Blose, "Alcoholism Treatment and Total Health Care Utilization and Costs: A Four-Year Longitudinal Analysis of Federal Employees," Journal of the American Medical Association, No.256 (1986), pp.1456-1460. ²¹NAATP, Treatment is the Answer, p.2. ²²A. Foster Higgins & Co., Inc., Health Care Benefits Survey 1989.

National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence
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