Disability is an increasing issue, particularly mental health related disability.

A very intelligent and agreeable but severely depressed man came out to my farm and I tried to get him to move rocks from one pile to another. He could do it as long as I supervised him, but could not sustain the effort when I was away.

Any employee takes a certain amount of time to manage, and that sets it's own floor on the "minimum cost" of hiring an employee.

The opiate epidemic is related to a syndrome of chronic pain which is very much a mind-body phenomenon from the viewpoint of biological psychiatry. People get back pain, neck pain, headaches, etc. and there is really no safe and effective treatment -- contacts with the medical system usually make it worse, but often the problem clears up when the patient gets a new job.