And finally…hidden cost of Britain’s ‘kettle tax’ revealed

British workers are costing their employers thousands of pounds every year – just from making the tea.

That finding is the result of new research conducted on behalf of energy comparison site SwitchMyBusiness.com, which discovered that an average employee makes three tea rounds per day – or 759 kettle boils per year, at an average of 2.5p per boil.

The findings point to an annual ‘kettle tax’ for employers of £84.20 per employee, with a company needing just 20 members of staff, doing their usual tea rounds, to rack up a yearly kettle bill of almost £1,684.



Those members of team, who can’t work without their morning coffee cost the business £141.20 each, per year. Again, with just 20 workers, employers fork out almost £3,000 a year.

Ivan McKeever, CEO of Switchmybusiness.com, said: “It’s interesting to see just how much tea rounds can cost businesses. To cut their bills, employers need to encourage their teams to perform energy saving techniques such as only boiling as much water as they need and only heating or cooling a room when needed.

“Even unplugging the kettle, or switching off at the plug, can save few pennies – and those pennies add up to pounds at the end of the year.”

In other findings, more than half of employees admitted to being unhappy with the temperature in their workplace, with almost a quarter reported feeling too warm in the summer and too cold in the winter.

A further fifth are always too warm due to the heating being permanently switched on, while 11% reported being too cold due to the air-conditioning being on at all times.

Tea and coffee annual bills

Tea rounds

Coffee rounds

Boiling the kettle

2.5p

2.5p

Water 1.7l (average kettle)

1.3p

1.3p

Tea bag

4.5p

Two teaspoons of coffee

12p

Teaspoon of sugar

0.8p

0.8p

20ml of milk/office delivery

2p

2p

Total per year (759 tea rounds)

£84.20 per employee

£141.20 per employee

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