The Unintended Consequences of Company Wellness Penalties
The Daily Beast:
More and more companies are saying yes—and not only can your company encourage you to get healthy, it can punish you for being overweight, usually by raising your health-care premiums.
That’s right—being unhealthy could start digging into your paycheck.
About 18 percent of workplace wellness programs include some kind of penalty for employees who don’t get healthy—and a 2010 survey by Hewitt Associates found that percentage is expected to rise to 47 percent by 2015.
But three new studies on workplace wellness incentives have found that employees aren’t taking new penalty-laden policies lightly.
The studies, published by the Association of Psychological Science (APS) and conducted by four academics specializing in sociology or psychology, all found that employees preferred “carrot and stick” policies and felt threatened by wellness programs with penalties.
Read the whole story: The Daily Beast
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