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5,000 euros for vaccinated people – this is how a Thuringian company convinced its employees
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The company Böttcher from Jena donated 5000 euros to all vaccinated employees. The company invested a total of three million euros – the vaccination rate proves the Thuringians right.
Financial bonuses for people who get vaccinated against Covid-19 have been discussed time and again in federal politics – this is how the sluggish fight against the pandemic should be advanced. Ultimately, nothing happened in this regard. Not so at Böttcher AG, a mail order company for office supplies from Jena. The company announced in November that it would pay 5,000 euros to all vaccinated employees.
“First and foremost, this is an investment in the health of our employees,” explained CEO Udo Böttcher at the time. In addition, the risk of failure due to illness or quarantine is minimized, which also gives the company business planning security. The campaign ran from mid-November to mid-January – and apparently achieved its goal, as reported by “Wirtschaftswoche”. The vaccination rate among Böttcher employees has increased significantly.
Vaccination bonus: Böttcher increases vaccination rate from 60 to 88 percent
At the beginning of the campaign, 60 percent of the employees were vaccinated. In the meantime, 88 percent of the 550 employees have claimed the bonus and provided proof of their vaccination. In the executive floor of the company one is very satisfied with it. “We have just established that the political answers have no effect,” says board member Danilo Fresker. The financial incentive, on the other hand, was apparently all the more effective – and that in Thuringia, a federal state with a comparatively low vaccination rate.
In this way, not only could the health of the employees be protected, but the important Christmas business also ran as smoothly as possible. In November last year there were sometimes up to ten corona-related cases of illness a day, Fresker told the “Wirtschaftswoche”. In the past six weeks, on the other hand, Böttcher has only registered “a single corona case”. The financial expense for the company amounts to three million euros, including the social security share of 20 percent, which the company had to pay on top of each premium.
Most Germans are skeptical about vaccination premiums
Some other companies have also tried to motivate their employees to get vaccinated with a cash bonus. However, this is still the exception. The promised sum was also usually significantly lower than that of the Thuringian company. The majority of the population is rather skeptical about a general vaccination premium. In Germany, according to a study by the European Covid Survey (ECOS), only 24 percent were in favor of a monetary amount and 21 percent in favor of a meal voucher as an incentive. According to the RTL/n-tv trend barometer, as many as 84 percent of those surveyed rejected a vaccination premium in November.
In other countries, vaccination incentives are more likely to be used – both by companies and by the state. Israel, for example, also vaccinated in bars and nightclubs to reach young people – who were given a non-alcoholic drink with their vaccination. The USA lured with donuts or even guns. Some states organized a vaccination fleet in which a million dollars was raffled off among all people who received their first vaccination dose. In Greece, young people between the ages of 18 and 25 received 150 euros for their vaccination, a so-called “freedom ticket” in recognition of their restrictions in the pandemic.
Source: “Wirtschaftswoche” / “ECOS”
This article originally appeared on stern.de.