The cost to employers for workers who are absent due to Covid-19 is estimated to have totaled more than $78.4 billion over the past 22 months, according to a new analysis from the Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI) that seeks to quantify the pandemic's broader productivity impacts. That works out to average weekly losses approaching $1 billion per week.

IBI, a national nonprofit research organization, included in its assessment potential sick leave wages, short-term disability payments, and spending on employee benefits. Here is how its estimate of $78.4 billion breaks down:

• Disability wage payments: $16.6 billion
• State disability insurance (specific to California and New York): $2.2 billion
• Sick-leave wages: $24.3 billion
• Employee benefits: $35.3 billion

The three states with the highest lost work time costs are California ($9.9 billion), Texas ($6.5 billion), and New York ($5.2 billion), while the top three metro areas with the highest lost work time costs are New York–Newark–Jersey City ($5.6 billion), Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana ($3.7 billion), and Chicago–Naperville–Joliet ($2.3 billion).

"As we continue to adapt and adjust to the new challenges that the omicron variant brings to employers and suppliers, it's more important now than ever before to look holistically at benefit costs," IBI President Kelly McDevitt said in a statement. "Medical, pharmacy, mental health, and wellness costs are critically important, but productivity and presenteeism have become a linchpin to successful attraction, retention, growth, and satisfaction."