By Ailan Evans and Harry Wilmerding
Most American small businesses say they oppose President Joe Biden’s employee vaccine mandate, and they say the rule will make it harder for them to find workers in addition to forcing employees to quit, according to a new poll.
Roughly 53% of small businesses say they oppose Biden’s mandate requiring businesses with over 100 employees to require their workers to be vaccinated or submit weekly negative tests, according to a poll from Job Creators Network released Thursday. Around 42% of small businesses said they support the mandate.
President Joe Biden
“These small business employers by a wide margin…oppose the vaccine mandates. They do not want to be charged with enforcing mandates,” pollster Scott Rasmussen, who conducted the survey, said during a press call on the poll results.
Small businesses were more likely to oppose the mandate than large businesses, with 57% of those taking in less than $250,000 in annual revenue the mostly opposing the mandate. Although many smaller employers are not covered by the mandate, Rasmussen said he believes they have a “general fear of what the mandates will do to the economy and their clients.”
A plurality of businesses also said their businesses would suffer if the vaccine mandate were to expand, with 45% saying an expansion of the mandate would negatively impact them compared to 44% saying it wouldn’t.
“Small businesses are facing an obstacle course of challenges as we begin the New Year. Persistent labor shortages are making it extremely difficult to operate and high inflation is eating into their budgets,” Elaine Parker, president of the Job Creators Network Foundation, said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. “And another barrier looms if the Supreme Court fails to act in a challenge brought by the Job Creators Network and other groups.”
Small businesses were particularly concerned with the impact of the vaccine mandate on their labor force, with 46% saying employees will quit if the mandate is enforced while 38% said no employees would quit.
Moreover, 61% said the mandate will make it harder for their business to find employees, while just 29% said it will not.
The employer vaccine mandate was issued by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and it imposes fines on employers who do not require their workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit weekly negative tests. The Job Creators Network is one of the lead plaintiffs challenging the OSHA mandate before the Supreme Court.
The poll sampled 500 small business employers from Dec. 4-23, and it has a margin of error of 4.4%.
Thousands of federal workers to march against Biden’s vaccine mandate
Thousands of federal employees will peacefully march in protest of President Biden’s vaccine mandate, Defeat The Mandates DC organizers announced in a press release Thursday.
Over 6,000 members of Feds For Medical Freedom, a national grassroots coalition consisting of federal workers, announced that they would join firefighters, first responders, medical professionals and more in the March to Defeat the Mandates in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23, the press release said.
Feds For Medical Freedom was formed in response to vaccine mandates and other restrictions imposed on federal employees, according to the organization’s website. The group believes “the government should not fire workers because of their health conditions or medically-informed health care decisions.”
“Now is not the time to abandon well-established laws regarding workplace discrimination, informed consent to use unlicensed vaccines, and individualized assessments by employers,” Feds For Medical Freedom’s website says. “Members of the Federal community work every day to ensure the nation’s laws are applied fairly to all citizens.”
“Now, they are fighting the government to ensure the law is applied fairly to all federal workers,” the site continues.
March organizers said that those participating do not oppose vaccines, according to the press release. The purpose, instead, is to stand up against mandatory vaccinations for U.S. citizens, the press release said.
Defeat The Mandates DC highlighted vaccine safety, specifically for children, saying over 16,000 doctors and scientists have signed a declaration saying healthy children should not receive the vaccine, according to the press release.
The march will start at the Washington Monument and end at the Lincoln Memorial where there will be speeches and artistic or musical performances, according to the press release.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
