Employee Absence Cost Calculator: What Missed Days Cost Your Company
Enter your headcount, average pay and missed days per employee to estimate what absences cost each year, and what a modest reduction would be worth. The figures are an estimate you can adjust, not a prediction.
Estimate Your Annual Cost of Absence
Your Company
Your Estimate
Estimated yearly cost of absence (example figures)
How the Estimate Works
Daily Pay
Average annual pay divided by 260 working days gives the cost of one day of pay.
Cost of a Missed Day
Each missed day costs the day of pay plus an extra share for overtime, temporary cover or lost output. You set that share.
Total and Savings
Total cost is employees times missed days times the cost of a day. The savings line applies your assumed reduction to that total.
What This Calculator Does Not Tell You
It Is Not a Quote
The result depends on the numbers you enter. Use your own payroll and attendance records for the best estimate.
Not Every Absence Is Preventable
Illness, family care and medical leave are often protected and necessary. Use the reduction field for the share you believe is realistic.
It Leaves Out Turnover and Output
Lost productivity at work, turnover and workers’ compensation costs are not included.
Common Questions
What is a typical number of missed days per employee?
It varies by industry and workforce. Use your own attendance records if you have them, rather than a national average.
What should I enter for the extra cost of covering an absence?
Include overtime, temporary staff and lost output. If you are unsure, start low and test a few values.
Can benefits reduce absences?
Access to care, paid leave, mental health support and flexible scheduling can help. Results vary, so measure your own absence before and after any change.
Does this include FMLA leave?
Only if you count those days in the missed days you enter. Protected leave cannot be discouraged, so treat it separately.
Where These Rules Come From
29 U.S.C. §2601 (Family and Medical Leave Act)
CFH are licensed insurance brokers, not attorneys or tax advisors. This page is general information, so confirm your situation with your benefits attorney or tax advisor.
Related Guides
Employee Burnout and Wellbeing
What benefits can and cannot do about absence and burnout.
Population Health Management for Employers
Programs that target the conditions behind missed days.
Send us your renewal.
We’ll tell you whether it looks competitive, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier. No cost, and no obligation to move anything.
The renewal letter
Your current plan summary
Contribution split by tier
Enrolled counts by tier
Four documents, two more if your group is 50 or more. Nothing else; every extra one is a reason to postpone.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
Switch to CFH. Unhappy with your broker? Your employees won’t notice. You will. →
Cookies on This Site
We use cookies to keep the site working properly and to understand how it is used. You can decline anything that is not essential. See our Privacy Policy for the detail.
- Essential — needed for the site to load and for you to move around it. These cannot be switched off.
- Analytics — tell us which pages get read, so we know what is worth writing more of.
- Advertising — set by third parties such as ad and social platforms to measure and target campaigns.