An Analysis of Worker Drug Use and Workplace Policies and Programs

CHAPTER 3: CURRENT ILLICIT DRUG AND HEAVY ALCOHOL USE BY ESTABLISHMENT SIZE

Respondents in the NHSDA were asked to indicate the size of the establishment at which they worked, based on their estimate of the number of employees at their particular location. There were five separate response categories: less than 10, 10-24, 25-99, 100-499, and 500 or more employees. Preliminary analysis indicated that collapsing these five ranges into three—under 25, 25-499, and 500 and over—preserved the principal observed differences without sacrificing any important information, so the discussion and figures in this chapter distinguish only among these three establishment sizes (see Appendix B).

This measure is the size of the individual establishment at which respondents worked rather than that of the company as a whole. It is not an indicator of the number of workers the company may employ across all locations in the immediate area or even nationwide; it provides information only about the respondent’s own place of work. In addition, no information was collected or estimated on other size dimensions, such as annual revenues. Establishment size was included in these analyses rather than firm size since the accuracy of employee knowledge about workplace policies is presumed to be greater at the establishment rather than the firm level. Moreover, firms that have establishments in more than one state or bargaining union may have different policies in each location.

This page was last updated on June 03, 2008.

SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.