TY - UNPB T1 - Sickness, absenteeism, “presenteeism” and sick pay A1 - Chatterji,Monojit A1 - Tilley,Colin J. AU - Chatterji,Monojit AU - Tilley,Colin J. PB - University of Dundee PY - 2000 Y1 - 2000 N2 - The annual cost of absenteeism from the workplace in the UK has been estimated to be over 1% of GDP. The traditional approach to a discussion of absence has been for the firm to passively accept both wages and sick pay and allow workers to choose their absence behaviour. Most empirical research has been based on this approach. However, if absence is costly why should firms pay extra-statutory sick pay? One reason may be the phenomena of presenteeism (ill workers attending work). This may adversely affect productivity. This paper shows that allowing for presenteeism has important implications for both the design of optimal wage-sick pay contracts and for the interpretation of empirical studies. Specifically, we show that firms will offer a level of sick pay greater than the statutory minimum. AB - The annual cost of absenteeism from the workplace in the UK has been estimated to be over 1% of GDP. The traditional approach to a discussion of absence has been for the firm to passively accept both wages and sick pay and allow workers to choose their absence behaviour. Most empirical research has been based on this approach. However, if absence is costly why should firms pay extra-statutory sick pay? One reason may be the phenomena of presenteeism (ill workers attending work). This may adversely affect productivity. This paper shows that allowing for presenteeism has important implications for both the design of optimal wage-sick pay contracts and for the interpretation of empirical studies. Specifically, we show that firms will offer a level of sick pay greater than the statutory minimum. KW - Health KW - Productivity KW - Wages KW - Sick pay KW - Absenteeism KW - Presenteeism M1 - Discussion paper BT - Sickness, absenteeism, “presenteeism” and sick pay T3 - Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics T3 - en_GB ER -