President Joe Biden on Wednesday issued a tax credit for employers who offer workers vaccine-related paid leave as the White House urges every American to get vaccinated.
The tax-credit for small-and medium-sized businesses and non-profits is designed to fully offset the cost of giving employees paid time off to both receive a vaccine and recover from potential side effects.
"I'm calling on every employer, large and small, in every state, to give employees the time off they need, with pay, to get vaccinated and any time they need, with pay, to recover if they are feeling under the weather after the shot," Biden said in a speech at the White House on Wednesday.
"No working American should lose a single dollar from their paycheck because they chose to fulfill their patriotic duty of getting vaccinated."
The tax credit is part of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief stimulus package signed into law last month, applying to nearly half of all private sector employees, according to the White House. For employers with fewer than 500 workers, the tax credit will cover paid leave for up to $511 per day for up to 10 work days, or 80 hours, when taken between April 1 and Sept. 30, 2021.
In addition to the tax credit, the White House also introduced a nation campaign with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services called "We Can Do This." The campaign's goal is to help employers make commitments to provide accurate and timely information about vaccine and to incentivize getting all Americans vaccinated. The commitments can include discounts for vaccinated individuals, product giveaways or brand rewards, messaging in-sotre, point-of-purchase promotion, direct outreach to customers, or Public Service announcements, according to the White House.
The new initiatives come as the U.S. reached Biden's upgraded goal of administering 200 million vaccine doses since he took office in late January. The nation is currently vaccinating at a pace of over 3 million shots per day over the last two weeks, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.