Why Trader Joe’s, Dollar General And Instacart Will Pay Workers To Get Vaccinated

Trader Joe’s, Dollar General and other companies that employ thousands of front-line hourly or gig workers have announced plans to pay bonuses to those who get the new COVID-19 vaccines.

“We want to be on the forefront of facilitating our employees’ ability to receive the COVID-19 vaccine if they so choose — and we encourage all of our team to receive the vaccine when it’s available to them,” Dollar General said in announcing plans this week to pay hourly workers four hours of pay to get vaccinated.

“We do not want our employees to have to choose between receiving a vaccine or coming to work,” the company said. “So, we are working to remove barriers (e.g., travel time, mileage, child-care needs, etc.) by providing frontline hourly team members with a one-time payment equivalent of four hours of regular pay.”

However, the chain said that it’s not mandating vaccines for its roughly 157,000 employees. “We understand the decision to receive the COVID-19 vaccination is a personal choice, and although we are encouraging employees to take it, we are not requiring them to do so,” Dollar General said.

Trader Joe’s this week also announced plans to give workers bonuses — two hours of pay per dose — to get the vaccine. The firm, which has some 50,000 employees, said it will also shift workers’ schedules around so they have time to get their vaccines.

Instacart Gig Workers Can Get $25

Brick-and-mortar retailers aren’t the only ones offering vaccine bonuses. Grocery deliver firm Instacart announced plans this week to offer its gig workers a $25 “Vaccine Support Stipend” to get their shots.

The move comes at a time when Instacart’s business has grown so much as consumers order groceries online to avoid stores that Instacart has reportedly grown from 180,000 gig workers before the pandemic to some 500,000 today.

“Our goal with the introduction of our new Vaccine Support Stipend is to ensure that when the time comes, Instacart [gig workers] don’t have to choose between earning income as an essential service provider or getting vaccinated,” Instacart Founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta said in a statement. “As the fight against COVID-19 stretches into 2021, we’re committed to supporting our [gig workers] and continuing to serve as a lifeline for millions of people across North America.”

Bonuses Or Not, Many People Say They Won’t Get Vaccinated

The incentives come at a time when many Americans are reluctant to get COVID-19 vaccines, fearing the rapidly developed drugs might not be safe.

For instance, a PYMNTS survey conducted shortly after researchers announced the availability of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine found that more Americans said they wouldn’t get the vaccine than said they would.

Some 38.4 percent told PYMNTS they “definitely” or “likely” wouldn’t get vaccinated, vs. 37.9 percent who said they say “definitely” or “likely” would. The remaining 23.7 percent were somewhere in the middle:

That’s bad news, considering scientists say about 70 percent of people must take the vaccine to create “herd immunity” and end the pandemic. And given that the vaccines are less than 100 percent effective, getting herd immunity might take more like 80 percent vaccination rates to achieve.

“It’s likely that 2021 will be a year of transition, where the population remains masked and socially distant as people get vaccinated,” Karen Webster wrote in November in discussing PYMNTS’ survey data. “Hopefully, enough of them do so to achieve the level of herd immunity required to make COVID a part of our past and not a persistent part of our present.”

Not All Retailers And Delivery Apps Are Joining In

Still, not all retailers and delivery firms with large numbers of hourly or gig workers plan bonus programs.

For example, Uber — whose Uber Eats business has soared as consumers order restaurant deliveries amid the pandemic — has yet to offer any incentives for its gig-worker drivers. However, the company did recently ask the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to recommend that drivers get priority access to COVID-19 vaccines.

“Early access to a vaccine would help drivers and delivery people continue to play their essential role while also reducing the risk that they may inadvertently contract, or possibly transmit, the virus,” Danielle Burr, Uber’s head of federal affairs, reportedly wrote in a recent letter to the CDC.

Rival delivery firm DoorDash has asked authorities to prioritize delivery workers as well.

Among brick-and-mortar chains, grocery giant Albertsons has reportedly said it doesn’t plan to offer its 300,000 workers bonuses to get vaccinated, nor does Target. However, Target — which has CVS pharmacies in 1,700 of its stores — has said it will give its 350,000 workers free, easy access to the shots.