Dollar General Corp. is offering its 157,000 employees four hours of pay if they receive a COVID-19 vaccine, reports The Wall Street Journal.
While some healthcare organizations — like Houston Methodist — are already offering bonuses for staff who get vaccinated, Dollar General is one of the first major U.S. employers outside of healthcare to offer a financial incentive tor workers.
Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said he didn't want expenses linked to child care, transit or lost work hours to discourage his employees from getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
"We felt the right thing to do was to break down these barriers to vaccination," he told the Journal.
Employers can legally require staff to receive a COVID-19 vaccine before returning to their place of work, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in December. However, many companies have stopped short of this requirement and are instead strongly encouraging as many employees as possible to get vaccinated, according to the Journal.
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