Objective: To compare number of days lost to illness or accessing healthcare for HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals working in the informal and formal sectors in South Africa and Zambia.

Design: As part of the HPTN 071 (PopART) study, data on adults aged 18–44 years were gathered between in cross-sectional surveys of random general population samples in 21 communities in Zambia and South Africa. Data on the number of productive days lost in the last 3 months, laboratory-confirmed HIV status, labour force status, age, ethnicity, education, and recreational drug use was collected.

Methods: Differences in productive days lost between HIV-negative and HIV-positive individuals (“excess productive days lost”) were estimated with negative binomial models, and results disaggregated for HIV-positive individuals after various durations on Anti-retroviral treatment (ART).

Results: From samples of 19,330 respondents in Zambia and 18,004 respondents in South Africa, HIV-positive individuals lost more productive days to illness than HIV-negative individuals in both countries. HIV-positive individuals in Zambia lost 0.74 excess productive days (95%CI: 0.48–1.01; p < 0.001) to illness over a three-month period. HIV-positive in South Africa lost 0.13 excess days (95%CI: 0.04–0.23; p = 0.007). In Zambia, those on ART for less than one year lost most days, and those not on ART lost fewest days. In South Africa, results disaggregated by treatment duration were not statistically significant.

Conclusions: There is a loss of work and home productivity associated with HIV, but it is lower than existing estimates for HIV-positive formal sector workers. The findings support policy makers in building an accurate investment case for HIV interventions.