Nearly half of America's small businesses require employees to get vaccinated

858
2
Nearly half of America's small businesses require employees to get vaccinated

Half of America's small business are planning to require their employees to be vaccinated in order to keep their jobs or return to the workplace, according to a new Morning Consult poll.

The survey, published Wednesday found that 19% of small businesses are 100% certain they will need off-site workers to get the jab, while another 31% said they will likely require it.

Although mandates are not widespread in the U.S. they are becoming more common as the highly contagious delta variant surges nationwide.

While the U.S. was making solid progress with vaccinations have received at least one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and infections began falling, cases have rebounded recently as the Delta variant spread amongst the unvaccinated population.

The U.S. is averaging about 78,000 new daily cases in the last seven days, compared to the 11,000 seven-day average for June, according to the Census Bureau.

Large businesses such as Google, Tyson and Microsoft have told their workers they need to get vaccinated. Either to work on site or for keeping their jobs has changed in recent days. New York City was also the first city to require proof of at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine for a number of activities for both workers and customers, including indoor dining, gyms and performances.

And the Census Bureau's Small Business Pulse Survey found that about 5.5% of companies in mid-July said they would require physical proof that an individual is vaccinated before coming to work an increase from early April, when just 2.2% of businesses said they would do so.

Trotz, the conservative community remains divided over mask mandates: Alfredo Ortiz, president of the business advocacy group The Job Creators Network, told FOX Business that new criteria for New York City are outrageous.

These government mandates disproportionately hurt small businesses, and this mandate targets those that have suffered the most economically, Ortiz said. Restaurants, in particular, continue to face shortage of personnel that will make enforcing such a mandate even more onerous. Encouraging people to get vaccinated is great, but what Mayor De Blasio is doing goes way too far.

But other business groups including the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce have lauded efforts to accelerate vaccine distribution by requiring either proof of a shot or weekly testing for COVID - 19. Neil Bradley, the Chamber of Commerce's chief executive vice president and CEO policy officer, said those types of workplace protocol are prudent steps to protect public health and economic recovery.