How many Americans are required to get COVID vaccine for their job? What poll found
Over one-third of American workers say their employer requires them to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a new poll found.
The Gallup poll, released Oct. 29, showed that 36% of United States employees say their employer requires them to get the shot. The poll of 4,007 adults was conducted Oct. 18-24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
This number has increased since July, when just 9% of workers said they were required to be vaccinated, and has increased continuously throughout each of the last three months.
Still, findings show that 39% of employees, the largest percentage of the poll, say their employer is “encouraging but not requiring them” to get the jab.
The remaining number of workers — 25% of poll responders — say their employer has not advised a policy for coronavirus vaccinations. This is one number that has remained roughly consistent since a previous Gallup poll in July.
Findings show 56% of employees support a vaccination mandate across workplaces, with 37% opposing.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has been working on his six-step “Path out of the Pandemic” rollout plan.
The proposal indicates Biden is directing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to create a rule that would make employers with 100 or more workers mandate a vaccine requirement or require weekly testing for unvaccinated employees.
The president said this mandate, along with its corresponding testing requirement, would affect 80 million workers across the country. A previous Gallup poll showed about 60% of Americans supported Biden’s new plan.
Biden announced a vaccine mandate for federal government workers in July.
Some American workers would not go along with an employer mandate, findings show. Of the 30% of workers who “strongly oppose” a mandate, half said they would be “extremely likely” to look for a new job if they did not agree with their employers’ vaccine requirements. This would be equivalent to 16% of all workers in the country.
Gallup’s poll shows about one in five, or 21%, of American workers are still unvaccinated.
This story was originally published October 29, 2021 at 12:07 PM with the headline "How many Americans are required to get COVID vaccine for their job? What poll found."
