Record-high gas prices affect more than just the family vacation. As gas prices rise, so does stress on the job.

How high are gas prices? So high that thousands of pumps at mom-and-pop service stations can’t even register the number on their spinning mechanical dials.

Last year at this time, the national average for regular unleaded was $2.86 per gallon. Now retail gas prices are up nearly 19 percent from year-ago levels, according to auto club AAA’s national average. Prices are 61 cents higher than a year ago, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Last week, prices were already above $4 a gallon at many stations around the country, and averaged more than $4 in California, New York and Illinois, among other states.

“A national average approaching $4 a gallon should not be ruled out by consumers later this year,” an AAA rep recently told CNN.com, saying Americans should expect the price to continue climbing over the summer months.

The price of gas at the pump has been supported by record high crude oil prices, which have doubled over the past year. Whatever the causes — global supply and demand, limited refineries, geopolitical disruptions, speculators, greed, et. al. — one of the most dizzying runs in the history of oil prices picked up pace last week (again) as crude oil prices jumped to settle at a new record of $135.09 a barrel.

Yet while gasoline prices in the United States continue to hit record highs, they are actually much lower than in many other countries. Of 155 countries recently surveyed by Air Inc., a company that tracks the cost of living around the world, U.S. gas prices were the 45th cheapest. As of late March, U.S. gas prices averaged $3.45 a gallon. That compares to over $8 a gallon across much of Europe. Earlier this year, drivers in some European countries, like the Netherlands, were paying nearly three times more than those in the U.S. (Note: Comparing gas prices across nations is always difficult. For one, the Air Inc. numbers don’t take into account different salaries in different countries, or the different exchange rates.)

And if you think the price of gas hurts, try diesel.

No doubt, record gas prices near $4 a gallon kept some motorists from hitting the road this Memorial Day weekend. AAA has seen that when gas prices hit “exorbitant levels,” Americans change their vacation plans, traveling closer to home, staying at less-expensive hotels and eating at fast-food restaurants rather than fancier dine-in restaurants. AAA expected 360,000 fewer Americans to venture from home this year over Memorial Day weekend. I suspect some IMT readers spent their three-day weekend taking a “staycation” rather than traveling to a far-flung location.

In a recent survey of more than 800 people this spring — when gas was about $3.50 per gallon — 52 percent of respondents had reconsidered taking vacations due to high gas prices.

Yet rising gas prices affect more than the family’s budget for recreational activities. As gas prices rise, so does the stress.

“If you doubt the visibility of this issue among workers, eavesdrop on what they are talking about,” Workforce Management recently suggested. “Rising [gas] costs are leading to increased rates of depression and increased commuting time as employees shift to public transportation, both of which decrease employee productivity.”

Pump pangs create more employee stress and cause less attentiveness on the job, according to the aforementioned study, by Wayne Hochwarter, the Jim Moran Professor of Management at the Florida school’s College of Business. Hochwarter’s data came from a survey of full-time employees who work primarily in the southeastern U.S. and drive personal vehicles to work with an average commute of 15 miles each way.

According to the study’s findings, announced this month:

• About one in three said they would quit their job for a comparable one nearer to home;

• Forty-five percent have cut back on debt payments, such as credit cards;

• Forty-five percent report escalating gas prices have “caused them to fall behind financially”; and

• Nearly 30 percent considered going without basics like food, clothing and medicine.

As such, survey respondents — from a wide range of occupations — said gas prices were foremost on their mind.

A factory worker who responded wrote, “I spend more time at work trying to figure out what I need to give up to keep gas in my tank than thinking about how to do my job.”

“People concerned with the effects of gas prices were significantly less attentive on the job, less excited about going to work, less passionate and conscientious and more tense,” Hochwarter said in a statement. “Employees were simply unable to detach themselves from the stress caused by escalating gas prices as they walked through the doors at work.”

Are you feeling the pinch of high gas prices? Let us know how gas prices are affecting you and what you’re doing to cope.

Earlier: Panic at the Pump

Resources

Old Gas Pumps Losing Numbers Game
The Associated Press (via The Chicago Tribune), May 13, 2008

National Unleaded Average
AAA

$100 Fill-Ups Arrive at Gas Pumps
CNN, April 23, 2008

Who’s to Blame for $4 Gas
by Steve Hargreaves
CNN, May 22, 2008

U.S. Gas: So Cheap It Hurts
by Steve Hargreaves
CNN, May 6, 2008

Gasoline Is Cheap
by Robert Bryce
Slate, May 15, 2008

FSU Researcher: As Gas Prices Climb, Employee Productivity Plummets
Florida State University, May 5, 2008

As Gas Prices Go Up, So Can Productivity
by John Sullivan
Workforce Management, May 2008