Vanguard awards a bonus of $1,000 to every vaccinated employee

Vanguard awards a bonus of $1,000 to every vaccinated employee

Vanguard Group is giving $1,000 to employees who show evidence of a COVID-19 vaccination, with the asset manager and mutual fund company joining other companies offering both carrots and stick in a bid to incentivize workers to get vaccinated.

And it's the golden carrot, $1,000. Vanguard is offering a wealthy bonus to about 16,500 workers in the US who get their doses by October; the company confirmed in an email to CBS MoneyWatch after Bloomberg News first reported the incentive.

Unlike a growing number of companies, Vanguard does not mandate that its workers be vaccinated.

The company stated that "Vanguard recognizes that vaccines are the best way to stop the spread of this virus and strongly encourages staff vaccination." The company said: we are providing a vaccine incentive to crews providing proof of vaccination against COVID-19. The motivation recognizes teams who have taken the time to protect themselves, each other, and our communities through immunization."

Vanguard is headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and has offices in Charlotte, North Carolina. Scottsdale, Arizona, and Washington, DC, plan to open a fifth location in Dallas next year.

Vanguard joins a growing list of companies offering bonuses to workers for getting vaccines. That includes health insurer Cigna, which announced in April that the country was "in a race against infectious variants" in offering nearly 65,000 US employees $200 each and time off to get their vaccinations.

In February, Kroger, the nation's largest supermarket chain, offered $100 to each of its 500,000 vaccinated workers, an offer also made by JBS USA and Pilgrim's to nearly 66,000 meat processing workers in January.

Houston Methodist first offered its 26,000 additional workers $500 in March to get the vaccines before making them a requirement by July, making it the first medical institution in the United States to issue a vaccine mandate. Dozens of other medical systems have followed suit since then.

According to outside placement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, financial firms enforcing the vaccination requirements include asset management giant BlackRock and Jefferies Financial Group, according to outside placement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley of Wall Street has banned unvaccinated workers and customers from its New York offices.

Efforts to get unvaccinated adults to roll up their sleeves can be challenging, given that 75% of those who say they "definitely wouldn't be vaccinated" see vaccines as a greater health risk than contracting the coronavirus, according to a nationwide KFF 1500 adults survey from July 15 to July 27.

According to CDC, vaccination prevents severe illness, hospitalization, and death. The CDC declared that people who are not immunized should be vaccinated and continue to be masked until they are fully vaccinated. The highly contagious delta variant makes guidance more urgent than ever.