JANUARY 30, 2006
Eat More Carrots, Get More From Your Employer?
On the University of Chicago Law School’s blog, Dean Saul Levmore posed a hypothetical scenario: what if employers offered incentives to employees who lost or maintained a healthy weight and penalized employees who were overweight? He theorized that a monetary reward could act as an effective motivator for many people.
The bottom line is that obesity costs employers money. According to the Research Triangle Institute, each overweight employee costs between $460 and $2,500, per year. These costs mainly cover healthcare and absenteeism. For a company with 1,000 employees, this could equate to $285,000 every year.
After looking through claims and medical expenses for their members, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina found that obese individuals cost 30 percent more, and overweight individuals 18 percent more, than those of normal weight.
So you can see why Levmore’s proposition may be appealing to businesses. But would it be appealing to you, as an employee?
Aside from the potential benefits an employee could gain from an incentive program like the one Levmore proposes, what could someone gain at work by losing weight? Unfortunately, hidden discrimination seems to exist. Statistics show that obese people earn less than their thinner counterparts—anywhere from 10-20 percent less. It is projected that many qualified, talented people are turned down for jobs because of their size. Most states do not protect obese employees from discrimination. So, by decreasing weight, people may actually be increasing their financial worth and employment success.
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