Companies offering perks to get shots
After working at a Petco store in Colorado for 11 months during a pandemic, T.J. Daniels was hoping that the company would give him time off to get a COVID-19 vaccine and deal with any potential side effects.
So far, nothing.
Several major employers, such as Dollar General, Mcdonald’s and Olive Garden, have announced incentives for workers to get vaccinated. But most, including Amazon, Target and Walmart, are not committing to provide any extra pay or time off to workers to get their shots.
“We haven’t really heard anything about any vaccination plan,” Daniels said. “They’re not doing anything to help us.”
He called on Petco to provide a $500 incentive to workers to get vaccinated and at least three days of paid time off to deal with the two required shots and 24 hours of potential side effects.
“That would be really cool if companies could throw together some sort of thing like that,” said Daniels, a member of United for Respect, a nonprofit that supports worker rights.
Contacted by USA TODAY, Petco released a statement saying it is poised to announce a plan.
“We wholeheartedly support the
rapid roll-out of COVID-19 vaccinations, and we believe essential workers should be prioritized,” the retailer said. “We are currently finalizing the details of a vaccine support program for Petco partners and will have more details to share soon.”
Advocates say incentives will encourage adoption, which will result in more protection for employees and customers. It will also potentially limit downtime that can occur when workers contract the virus. Experts say a high proportion of the U.S. population needs to get vaccinated to build herd immunity, which would limit the coronavirus from continuing to spread.
But for now, most employers are saying only that they're strongly encouraging vaccination but essentially forcing workers to do it on their own time.
It doesn't make sense for businesses to refuse to give workers a few hours of paid time off to get vaccinated, said Denise Rousseau, professor of organizational behavior and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College.
“Why the heck would you not?” she said. “You want to encourage people to take the vaccine.”
Bunny Ellerin, director of the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management Program at Columbia Business School, said it's the moral thing to provide incentives to workers to get their shots.
“It's just the right thing to do,” she said. “It's a public health issue and it's a human issue.”
While some workers may have sufficient personal time to get vaccinated on their own, others might need time off to do so, including people who work two jobs, have transportation challenges or serve as a caregiver at home, vaccine advocates said.
Ellerin said companies should even consider giving workers time off to help their family members.
“Don't penalize them if they're taking a partner or somebody living with them for it,” she said. “Not only don't penalize them — applaud them.”
Rebecca Reindel, safety and health director of the AFL-CIO, an organized labor group that represents more than 12 million workers, said employers should provide incentives and scheduling flexibility for workers to get their shots.
At Mcdonald's, which had about 205,000 employees globally as of early 2020, U.S. workers will be given four hours of pay to get the vaccine.
Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse, will provide two hours of pay for each vaccine dose.
Several grocery chains are providing incentives to workers to get inoculated. Kroger is offering $100. Aldi and Trader Joe's are providing workers two hours of extra pay for each dose.
Starbucks is offering two hours of paid time off for each dose.
Amazon, one of the nation's largest employers, did not respond to a USA TODAY request to detail its plans. The company is not providing incentives to workers to get vaccinated, but said in a blog post it has a deal with “a licensed third-party occupational health care provider to administer vaccines on-site at our Amazon facilities.”
Walmart will vaccinate pharmacy customers and employees when the shots become available, but it will not provide incentives to workers to get one.
Target said CVS pharmacies inside of more than 1,700 Target stores will provide vaccines to employees when they become available in the coming months.