Biden: All employers should give workers paid time off to get vaccinated

Washington — President Joe Biden is calling on all employers to provide workers with paid time off to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and “any time it takes to recover from the aftereffects of vaccination.”

“No working American should lose a single dollar from their paycheck because they chose to fulfill their patriotic duty to get vaccinated,” Biden said during an April 21 virtual press conference.

According to a White House statement, employers with fewer than 500 employees will be eligible for a tax credit to “offset the cost” of providing COVID-19 vaccine-related paid leave.

“Providing paid time off for vaccinations is an investment in the safety, productivity and health of an employer’s own workforce and their community,” the statement reads. “The paid leave tax credit that President Biden signed into law in the American Rescue Plan ensures that no small businesses or nonprofits will lose a single dollar by providing such paid leaves for workers receiving a vaccination.”

On its website, the Internal Revenue Service has instructions on how employers can claim the tax credit, which will cover paid leave taken by employees between April 1 and Sept. 30.

During the press conference, Biden announced that 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered nationwide in his first 92 days in office. As of April 19, every American at least 16 years old was eligible to receive a vaccine, he said.