Workplace mental ill-health can cost Australia $27bn: Report

Workplace mental health issues are directly costing the Australian economy $12 billion per annum in lost gross domestic product (GDP), with the cost set to rise by more than 125% over the next 15 years in excess of $27 billion a year.

New research from Mentally Healthy Workplaces Australia (MHWA) Australia's Economic Case for Mentally Healthy and Safe Workplaces revealed workplace-driven mental ill-health is one of the leading contributors to the productivity slowdown.

Lost productivity due to absenteeism, presenteeism, staff turnover and lower workforce participation accounts for close to 54% of direct economic costs.

These costs are largely borne by industry before shifting into workers compensation, life and health insurance, and then government-funded support systems.

"Workplace-driven mental ill-health is not a future issue - it is a social and financial crisis that is already imposing substantial, and rapidly growing, burdens on Australia's economy and workplaces," MHWA executive director and co-lead Margo Lydon said.

"The economic cost of inaction clock is ticking rapidly. Structural shifts in the labour market, including automation and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), will only intensify psychosocial pressures on workers, making a nationally coordinated, prevention-led response even more urgent.

"Without such a response, costs will only continue to grow for governments, employers, workplace regulators, insurers, individuals and the broader community."

Lydon said there is "power" in a nationally coordinated approach to action.

"Road fatalities were considered inevitable until Australia introduced its first national road safety strategy in 1992, with sustained investment in evidence, education, infrastructure, and regulation. The result is a 60% decline in road deaths," she said.

"Workplace mental health, safety, and wellbeing now requires the same long-term, prevention-led, and coordinated system-wide approach to address the problem. We cannot just continue to shift the cost - we urgently need preventative and practical action, nationally."