President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced the availability of new tax credits to help small and medium-sized businesses provide paid time off for employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
In a speech, Biden referenced the availability of IRS instructions on how employers with fewer than 500 employees can be reimbursed for the cost of providing paid leave for vaccinations. He unveiled the program to address the issue of American workers feeling that they can’t afford to take the time off to get vaccinated or lose a day of work because they aren’t feeling well after the shot.
“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,” he said. “And anytime they need with pay to recover if they’re feeling under the weather after the shot.”
“No working American should lose a single dollar from their paycheck because they choose to fulfill their patriotic duty of getting vaccinated,” the president added.
For the second and third quarters of 2021, businesses may take tax credits for wages up to 80 hours of paid sick leave in an amount equal to either:
- the employee’s regular wage, capped at $511/day, up to a total of $5,110 if the employee was sick or quarantining, awaiting the results of a COVID test, obtaining or recovering from a vaccine
- two-thirds of the employee’s regular wage, capped at $200/day, up to a total of $2,000, if the employee was taking time to care for someone quarantining or to provide care due to COVID-19 school or child care provider closures
White House officials also said last Wednesday that 43% percent of working adults have received the vaccine to date. Overall, more than 133 million Americans, or more than half of the adult population, have received at least one shot so far.
This article originally appeared on our sister publication Security Sales & Integration‘s website.
