Equinox and SoulCycle say they'll require ALL customers and staff get COVID shots - joining Facebook, Google, and Walt Disney Co. as Indian Delta variant rages nationwide
Equinox and its subsidiary SoulCycle will require customers and staff to show proof of vaccination if they want access to its gyms and studios.
The company announced the new policy, which will initially be implemented at its New York City locations next month, in an email it sent to members on Monday.
Equinox joins scores of other big-name U.S. companies that will require their employees to get COVID vaccinations before returning for in-person work.
Facebook and Google last week joined Morgan Stanley and Saks Fifth Avenue in announcing the rules as the Indian 'Delta' variant threatens to derail the economy's reopening.
Equinox said in the email that it conducted a survey of its members and found that 96 percent of them have already been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Equinox and its subsidiary SoulCycle will require customers and staff to show proof of vaccination if they want access to the gyms and studios beginning next month. The image above from last year shows the Equinox location on Manhattan's West Side
Instructor Janet Fitzgerald leads a class at SoulCycle in New York in this 2011 file photo. SoulCycle operates a majority of its locations in the New York metropolitan area
The company announced the new policy, which will initially be implemented at its New York City locations, in an email it sent to its members on Monday
The survey also found that 89 percent of employees reported being vaccinated.
According to the company, an ‘overwhelming majority’ of its customers want mandatory vaccinations so that they could have peace of mind when entering gyms and riding studios.
'We have a responsibility to take bold action and respond to changing circumstances with urgency,' said Equinox Group Executive Chairman Harvey Spevak.
'We encourage other leading brands to join us in this effort to best protect our communities.'
Equinox made the announcement on the same day New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged private businesses in the state, including bars, restaurants and gyms, to require customers to be vaccinated in order to receive service.
Equinox operates more than 100 fitness clubs around the world. Forty of them are located in New York.
Most of the company’s SoulCycle locations are also in the city and surrounding suburbs.
List of U.S. employers requiring workers to get vaccinated grows, as others offer incentives to encourage shots
REQUIRING VACCINES:
Equinox, and its subsidiary SoulCycle
BlackRock
City of New York
Delta Air Lines (for new employees)
Goldman Sachs
Lyft
Morgan Stanley
Netflix
Saks Fifth Avenue
State of California
State of New York
United Airlines (for new employees)
The Washington Post Co.
OFFERING INCENTIVES FOR EMPLOYEES TO GET VACCINES:
ALDI groceries (Paid time off and adjusted hours to get vaccinated)
Amazon ($100 bonus for workers who show proof of vaccination on first day of employment)
Amtrak (two hours of bonus pay and excused absence)
American Airlines (additional paid vacation day in 2022 and a $50 bonus)
Bolthouse Farms ($500 bonus with proof of vaccination or if they get shot at on-site clinic)
Chobani (up to six hours of paid time off for employees to go get vaccinated)
Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden (four hours of paid time off to cover both doses of the vaccine)
Dollar General (one-time stipend equal to four hours of paid time off)
Instacart ($25 stipend to in-store employees and independent contractors)
JBS USA and Pilgrim's ($100 bonus)
Kroger ($100 bonus with proof of vaccination as well as $100 store credit and 1,000 fuel points for essential and frontline staffers)
Lidl ($200 bonus and scheduling flexibility for vaccination appointments)
McDonald's (up to four hours of paid time off to get the vaccine)
Publix ($125 gift cards for employees who show proof of vaccination)
Starbucks (up to four hours of paid time off for vaccine dosage appointments)
Target (up to four hours of paid time off per vaccine dosage and a $30 reimbursement for using a Lyft to get to their appointment)
Trader Joe's (additional two hours of pay for each dose and scheduling flexbility)
Equinox made the announcement on the same day New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urged private businesses in the state, including bars, restaurants, and gyms, to require customers to be vaccinated in order to receive service
New York State on Saturday reported more than 2,500 cases of the coronavirus - a fourfold increase from a month ago
More than 63 percent of New Yorkers have had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine
More than 57 percent of state residents have been fully vaccinated, according to state data
New York State on Saturday reported more than 2,500 cases of the coronavirus - a fourfold increase from a month ago.
COVID-19 cases are continuing to rise rapidly throughout the United States as the country enters its fourth wave of the pandemic.
On Sunday, America recorded 25,141 new cases of coronavirus with a seven-day rolling average of 79,951, which is the highest average recorded since Feb. 16.
It also marks a 312 percent increase from the 19,400 average recorded three weeks ago.
Additionally, 71 COVID-19 deaths were recorded on Sunday with a seven-day rolling average of 341, the second day in a row that the 300 threshold has been passed.
The figure is a 45 percent increase from three weeks prior and the largest seen since June 12.
Health officials say deaths have not risen as dramatically because people now are protected by vaccines, but the spread of the Indian 'Delta' variant is causing hospitalizations to spike in several states.
'Private businesses - I am asking them and suggesting to them to go to vaccine-only admission,' Cuomo said on Monday.
'I believe it's in your best business interest.
'If I go to a bar and I want to have a drink and I want to talk to the person next to me, I want to know that that person is vaccinated.'
The surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the Indian Delta variant has forced companies that planned to resume in-person business to recalibrate.
Twitter on Wednesday announced it would close its offices in New York and San Francisco after just reopening them two weeks ago.
Lyft, meanwhile, said it would push its office reopening out to February.
And compulsory masking could make a reappearance, too, with California saying it would push for people to be masked indoors regardless of their vaccination status.
Employers saying they will require vaccines include BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lyft and Netflix.
The measures slow down the country's march toward normal in the wake of more than a year of restrictions as the particularly virulent Delta variant is thought by experts to be a major threat - especially to the unvaccinated.
For months, most employers relied on information campaigns, bonuses and other incentives to encourage their workforces to get the COVID-19 shot.
Now, a growing number are imposing rules to make it more onerous for employees to refuse, from outright mandates to requiring the unvaccinated to undergo regular testing.
Among employers getting tougher are the federal government, the state governments of California and New York, the Walt Disney Co. and the NFL.
Some hospitals, universities, restaurants, bars and other entertainment venues have also started requiring vaccines.
But the new measures are unlikely to affect many of the millions of unvaccinated Americans.
Many of the companies that are requiring shots have mostly office workers who are already largely vaccinated and are reluctant to work alongside those who aren't.
In contrast, major companies that rely on low-income blue-collar workers — food manufacturers, warehouses, supermarkets and other store chains — are shying away from mandates for fear of driving away employees and worsening the labor shortages the businesses are facing.
Tyson Foods, for instance, said about half of its US workforce - 56,000 employees - has received shots after the meat and poultry processor hosted more than 100 vaccination events since February.
Last week, Facebook announced it will require employees to be vaccinated before returning to the office
Google last week informed its more than 130,000 employees that they would all be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 when they return to the office in mid-October. The image above shows Google's Mountain View, California headquarters
But the company said it has no plans to impose a mandate to reach the other half.
Walmart and Amazon, the country's two largest private employers, have also declined to require its hourly workers to get vaccinated, continuing to rely on strategies such as bonuses and onsite access to shots.
But in a potentially powerful signal, Walmart said employees at its headquarters will be required to get vaccinated by Oct. 4.
The biggest precedent so far has come from the federal government, the nation's largest employer. President Joe Biden announced last week that all federal employees and contractors must get vaccinated or put up with weekly testing and lose privileges such as official travel.
The federal government has said it will cover the costs of the weekly tests. As for other employers, insurance may pay for testing at some workplaces but not others.
Biden’s decision could embolden other employers by signaling they would be on solid legal ground to impose similar rules, said Brian Kropp, chief of research at consulting firm Gartner’s human resources practice.
But Kropp said some companies face complicated considerations that go beyond legalities, including deep resistance to vaccines in many states where they operate.
Retailers like Walmart might have a hard time justifying vaccine requirements for their workers while allowing shoppers to remain unvaccinated, Kropp added.
Stores have mostly avoided vaccine requirements for customers for fear of alienating them and because of the difficulty in trying to verify their status.
In surveys by Gartner, fewer than 10 percent of employers have said they intend to require all employees to be vaccinated.
But a shift is building amid frustration over plateauing vaccination rates and alarm over the spread of the more contagious Indian Delta variant.
As of Monday, 69.9 percent of American adults had gotten at least one shot, missing Biden’s goal of 70 percent by the Fourth of July, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Union Square Hospitality Group, a group of New York City restaurants and bars founded by Danny Meyer, is now requiring employees and customers to be vaccinated by Sept. 7.
The San Francisco Bar Owner Alliance, a group of about 300 bars, made a similar decision following a meeting where 'the thing that stood out was anger and frustration' toward vaccine holdouts, said founder Ben Bleiman.
While some companies fear vaccine mandates will drive workers away, the pandemic itself is also causing absenteeism.
Bleiman said he recently had to close his bar for a night after his bartender, who was fully vaccinated, tested positive and a replacement couldn't be found.
Some employers are concluding that requiring vaccines is simpler than trying to come up with different rules on masks and social distancing for the small number of unvaccinated employees.
BlackRock, the global investment manager, is allowing only vaccinated workers into its US offices for now and said people will be free to go maskless, as local health guidelines allow, and sit next to each other and congregate without restrictions.
The firm said 85 percent of its US employees are vaccinated or in the process of getting shots.
Matthew Putman, CEO of New York-based high-tech manufacturing hub Nanotronics, said he agonized over his decision to impose a vaccine mandate on his more than 100 employees.
As it turned out, nearly all of them were already vaccinated, though he dreads the prospect of having to fire any holdouts.
I hate the thought. But if it has to happen it has to happen,' Putman said.
'I lost a ton of sleep over this but not as much sleep as I’ve lost over the fear of infection.'
