By Chris Morris, Fortune Magazine
There are a lot of benefits of choosing not to smoke. You live longer. You live healthier. And, if you happen to work for the Japanese marketing firm Piala Inc, you get a lot more vacation time.
The company has introduced a paid leave allowance to non-smokers, giving them an extra six days off per year. And though many companies offer some sort of incentive to kick the butts for health and insurance reasons, at Piala, it’s all about fairness.
It’s estimated cigarette breaks take at least 15 minutes, so non-smokers have complained to the company that they were working harder than people who ran out for a nicotine fix several times a day. The company, after investigating, agreed—and CEO Takao Asuka set the new policy.
Many Japanese firms are encouraging their workers to quit smoking, especially as the 2020 Summer Olympics draw near. Tokyo’s governor is hoping to enact a ban on smoking in public places before the Games arrive, though will likely have trouble pushing that through.
Globally, smoking carries costs of more than $1 trillion per year, according to a study from the World Health Organization and the U.S. National Cancer Institute. That’s far more than global revenues from tobacco taxes, which total an estimated $269 billion.
