Biden Offering Businesses Tax Credits For Vaccine Paid Time Off
Michael Cantrell
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President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he will be giving tax credits to businesses that provide employees with paid time off so they can get the coronavirus vaccine as he seeks new ways to get corporations involved in the official vaccine campaign.
Officials working in the Biden administration said the government is planning to reimburse businesses for the cost of allowing workers to take up to 80 hours paid time off to get shots or recover from vaccine side effects.
The tax credit of up to $511 per day through September for each worker would be given to businesses with fewer than 500 employees, officials said. Businesses of that size employ roughly half of the country’s private sector workers. The tax credits were authorized under Democratic-backed COVID-19 pandemic relief legislation passed by Congress and signed by Biden.
The president also plans to make a televised appeal for all businesses to help convince people to get their shots, officials said.
The administration’s chief problem in its response to the pandemic is now shifting from securing enough vaccine supply for most Americans to convincing enough people to seek out the available shots.
The president was very pleased to also announce that his administration met the target goal of administering 200 million COVID-19 vaccine shots within his first 100 days in office. That period will come to an end next week.
The U.S. has now expanded eligibility for the vaccine to include the vast majority of American adults. Half of that population has already had at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the CDC. A third of adults in the country are fully vaccinated. Around 26 percent of the overall population shares that status.
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