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.
“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. (RELATED: Companies, Business Groups Have Plans To Push Back On Biden’s Vaccine Mandate)
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 County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health “Notice of Closure” sign hangs on the door of a restaurant temporality closed due to violations including “failure to comply with health officer order” amid increased Covid-19 restrictions on businesses on January 22, 2021 in Redondo Beach, California. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
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%.
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