Estimations of the costs of production losses: Salary costs and loss of labour productivity
The estimation of the economic loss of production caused by incapacity for work gives an impression of the potential for prevention. The figures for 2022 are discussed below.
Since 1994, and thus starting with the situation in 1993, the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, BAuA) has estimated the macro-economic losses due to incapacity for work in Germany. With an average incapacity for work of 21.3 days per employee, a total of 888.9 million days of incapacity for work occurred in 2022. Based on this volume of incapacity for work, BAuA estimates the total loss of production in the economy as a whole at 118 billion euros, and the loss of gross output at 207 billion euros. These estimates reflect levels of incapacity for work due to respiratory diseases that have increased noticeably in comparison to the previous year and doubled for some indicators.
The data base
The estimate is based on data from the national accounts produced by the Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt), as well as incapacity for work data on people with statutory health insurance cover from the following statutory health insurance funds:
- local health insurance funds (Allgemeine Ortskrankenkassen),
- company health insurance funds (Betriebskrankenkassen),
- substitute health insurance funds (Ersatzkassen),
- social insurance funds for agriculture, forestry, and horticulture as providers of health insurance for agricultural workers (Sozialversicherung für Landwirtschaft, Forsten und Gartenbau als Träger der landwirtschaftlichen Krankenversicherung).
The persons covered are compulsory and voluntary members of the statutory health insurance with sickness benefit entitlements, not including pensioners and co-insured family members. Years of membership are used to calculate the statutory health insurance membership numbers. In other words, a person who held health insurance for six months in 2022 (e.g. while doing seasonal work) is factored into the calculations with 0.5 statutory health insurance membership years. Overall, data from 31 million statutory health insurance membership years are included.
Data on the economic costs of incapacity for work can also be found in the annual Safety and Health at Work (Sicherheit und Gesundheit bei der Arbeit) reports, which are available for download from www.baua.de/suga.
For further information please refer to our German Website.