A majority of respondents (76 percent) in a recent survey conducted by software company CyberShift reported that up to 10 percent of employee absences were unauthorized.

The CyberShift survey polled 1,200 American Payroll Association members, and finds that the unapproved absences are tracked at a manager’s discretion (53 percent), while another 25 percent of respondents do so by monitoring it as unpaid time. According to survey respondents, authorized absences – such as disability, maternity/paternity leave, sabbaticals, sick time and vacation time – account for a higher percentage of payroll-related costs. CyberShift says a little more than 20 percent of respondents listed sick time as accounting for more than 25 percent of all payroll costs, while nearly 60 percent said that vacation time accounts for more than 25 percent of payroll costs.