Recently a significant report investigating the costs and benefits of implementing a universal Reproductive Health Leave entitlement in Australia was released by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre. The report makes for interesting reading and clearly shows that providing universal Reproductive Health Leave provides a net benefit to workers and to business.
The report indicates the cost of 12 days of paid Reproductive Health Leave (RHL), the minimum time recommended as a starting point to enable the development of benchmarks, is estimated at somewhere between $2.3 billion and $5.9 billion, with an estimate of $3.6 billion being used under the benchmark scenario utilised by the researchers.
In per capita terms, the average cost of 12 days of RHL would range from $190 to $487 per employed worker, with an estimate of $296 per worker per year under the benchmark scenario used in the research.
The costs do not include the financial benefits that will accrue to businesses from the implementation of RHL, like from the improved productivity, improved retention and lower retirement rates among workers who have a greater capacity to manage their health conditions due to the availability of paid RHL.
Such benefits can be quantified by adjusting the economic loss from workers’ forgone wages, decreased income due to working part-time, and workers’ turnover due to people leaving their job or retiring early due to reproductive health conditions.
These costs are a fraction of the lost productivity costs incurred by Australian businesses from reproductive health conditions. The cost of lost productivity can vary significantly depending on modelling assumptions relating to the costs of absenteeism, presenteeism (loss of productivity while at work), medical expenses, and forgone wages and superannuation, whenever available. External research findings have valued the lost productivity to be as high as $26.55 billion annually.
Drawing on evidence from the new workplace survey implemented for the report, the research estimates that the value of lost productivity due to reproductive health conditions is $21.3 billion.
Menopause, menstrual pain, and endometriosis contribute to the majority of this cost because of the greater incidence of workers experiencing these conditions and the heavier burden they carry in managing these conditions while at work.
This report is a significant piece of work that clearly demonstrates the benefits of implementing 12 days of paid Reproductive Health Leave has many more benefits to those experiencing such conditions, to businesses and to the Australian economy.
You can download and read the report from the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre here
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