NEW YORK – Bank of America Corp told workers on Wednesday it will donate $100 to local food banks for every one of its employees who gets a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot and notifies the bank before Jan. 31, according to a memo seen by Reuters.
It is a new spin on the $100 financial incentives that some cities and states offered newly vaccinated residents, and comes as companies look for ways to protect staff and ultimately return to work in offices.
Bank of America, the United States’ second-largest bank, said it would donate up to $10 million for workers who get booster shots this month or who have already gotten the shot if they register that information with the bank.
The pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity in the United States, hitting needy families and the nonprofits that serve them, bank Chief Human Resources Officer Sheri Bronstein wrote in the memo. Bank of America has donated $150 million to fight hunger since 2015.
U.S. financial firms have also been more aggressive than other industries in encouraging employees to return to offices. However, a number of big banks, including Bank of America, have advised employees to work from home for at least part of this month to avoid the highly infectious Omicron variant, which has caused COVID-19 cases to skyrocket.
Bank of America has encouraged its workers to get vaccinated and boosted since last summer, and has offered other incentives, including paid time off, to get the shots and $500 credits toward their health benefit premiums.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
