World Cup Could Cost Employers $17 Billion in Lost Work Time

LATIN AMERICA · BUSINESS

With a tournament partly staged in the Americas about to dominate office chatter, a new survey puts a price tag on the distraction, warning that employers may struggle to keep staff focused, or even to get them through the door.

What the World Cup study found

The research, from UKG, a company that sells artificial-intelligence software for human resources, payroll and workforce management, estimates that this year’s tournament could drain about $17 billion from global employers in lost productivity. The figure is an estimate built from a survey rather than a measured loss, but it captures a familiar tension: a marquee sporting event colliding with the working day.

More than a third of workers, 37%, said they plan to adjust their schedules around the matches. Just over a quarter, 27%, said they were likely to miss work by showing up late, leaving early or skipping a day altogether. Another 11% admitted they might work while hungover, and 14% said they would quietly stream games and highlights while on the clock.

Why the timing matters for the Americas

This year’s event is unusually close to home for the region. The expanded tournament, which runs from June 11 to July 19, is co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, and features 48 national teams playing 104 matches. Many games will air during the working day across the Americas, sharpening the clash between fixtures and shifts that the study describes.

By the firm’s reckoning, the United States absorbs the largest share of the projected cost, about $11.7 billion, with Germany a distant second at roughly $1.34 billion. The survey itself spanned eight countries, including Mexico, one of the three host nations, where workplace disruption is likely to be especially visible.

A test for managers, too

The pull of a big match does not stop at the front line. The survey found that 42% of managers would likely plan a day off around the tournament, and 45% would ask for last-minute flexibility. That leaves companies managing absenteeism and “presenteeism,” the term for employees who are physically present but mentally elsewhere, at the same time.

“When absenteeism and presenteeism hit at scale, the effect is immediate and expensive,” said Suresh Vittal, chief product officer at UKG, adding that productivity falls, customer service suffers and morale dips as remaining staff cover the gaps. The research was carried out on the firm’s behalf by the polling company Censuswide, surveying 8,000 employees in May across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

From cost to opportunity

The report frames the tournament less as an unavoidable loss than as a planning test. With more than a third of staff signaling they will shift their hours, the firm argues that clear communication and practical flexibility, such as agreed viewing breaks or adjusted shifts, can convert a disruption into a morale boost rather than a drag on output.

For businesses across Latin America, where football commands a particularly strong following, the practical takeaway is the same as elsewhere: the World Cup is coming through the working day whether employers plan for it or not, and how they respond may matter more than the headline dollar figure.