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A 2004 study from the University of Michigan Depression Center cites that one in 10 employees are clinically depressed at any given time, costing companies $52 billion in absenteeism and reduced productivity.
The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003) estimated the cost of lost productivity even higher: $63 billion. Add $12 billion for mortality costs and $4 billion for incarceration and the total annual cost exceeds $79 billion.
The average medical expenditure for a normal-weight man is $1,351 a year. Men who are 30 to 60 pounds overweight cost $462 more based on added medical costs and absenteeism. Extremely obese men cost $2,027 a year more.
Average medical expenditures for normal-weight women are $1,956. Women who are 30 to 60 pounds overweight cost $1,372 more when medical costs and missed work are included. Women who weigh 60 to 100 pounds too much cost $2,485 more.
Source: RTI International, a nonprofit think tank, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In some jobs, danger comes with the job. Highway accidents on the job were the No 1 Killer in 2004. Injuries from being struck by objects is now the third most common fatal event, surpassing workplace homicide.
Nearly half of all fatal work injuries occurred among workers who drive or move material around for a living. Truck drivers, forklift operators, trash collectors, and cabbies are all part of the group.
Women in the United States who are 30 to 44 and who hold a university degree -- meaning a bachelor's degree, master's degree, doctorate or medical degree -- make only 62 percent of what similarly qualified men do.
That's a lower rate than in all but three of the 19 countries for which numbers are available. The nations with greater inequity in pay are Germany, New Zealand and Switzerland.
Source: Organization for Cooperation and Development
In all levels of education, the United States spends $11,152 per student. That's the second highest amount, behind the $11,334 spent by Switzerland.
Given what the United States spends on education, its relatively low student achievement through high school shows its school system is "clearly inefficient," says Barry McGaw, director of education for the Paris-based Organization for Cooperation and Development.
Among adults age 25 to 34, the U.S. is ninth among industrialized nations in the share of its population that has at least a high school degree. In the same age group, the United States ranks seventh, with Belgium, in the share of people who hold a college degree.
By both measures, the United States was first in the world as recently as 20 years ago
Source: Organization for Cooperation and Development, Sept 2005
