OBJECTIVES: To estimate indirect costs of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in Poland, based on absenteeism in the workplace data derived from Department of Statistics of the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS). METHODS: Available insurance information consisted of data on: (1) sick leaves, (2) short-term inability to work - on the basis of decisions authorizing rehabilitation services (3) long-term inability to work – on the basis of medical certificates awarded because of incapacity for work. To calculate indirect costs we used three parallel alterations of the human capital approach (HCA) method - based on: the average monthly gross earnings, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita or gross value added per 1 employee (adjusted by a factor of marginal productivity of labor). RESULTS: In 2010, in patients with SLE in Poland, sick leaves, short-term and long-term inability to work were responsible for: 1897, 596 and 27 012 months of absenteeism, in 1600, 112 and 2481 persons, respectively. The total number of 2459 years of lost productivity corresponded to indirect costs of: 100,421,579 PLN, 97,215,041 PLN or 161,743,804 PLN, based on average earnings, GDP per capita or adjusted gross value added per employee, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Two of the three approaches, in addition - the most frequently mentioned in the literature, indicated the indirect costs of systemic lupus erythematosus in Poland at around 100 million PLN per year. Our estimates of indirect costs may be undervalued because it did not include the cost of lost productivity due to premature mortality in the course of SLE, and the costs associated with a reduction in the efficiency of the work done despite of the disease (preseenteism).