New Study Says Biden Vaccine Mandate Will Cost Businesses $1.3 Billion in Compliance Costs
https://www.theepochtimes.com/
President Joe Biden’s proposed mandate that millions of U.S. businesses require employees to be vaccinated against the CCP virus will put more than 44 million jobs at risk and cost firms nearly $1.3 billion to comply, according to a new report issued Nov. 23 by Republican members of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
The report analyzed the number of jobs put at risk and the compliance costs for businesses on a state-by-state basis. Biden’s proposed mandate related to the virus that causes COVID-19 was issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS).
“Using information gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the analysis in the OSHA ETS, the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate will put an estimated 44,966,434 American jobs at risk. Additionally, U.S. businesses will spend at least $1.29 billion in complying with the requirements of the mandate,” the report said.
“Under President Biden’s unlawful and unconstitutional vaccine mandates, Kentucky risks losing up to 34 percent of its labor force, not to mention it will cost Kentucky businesses at least $50 million,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the ranking Republican on the Senate small business panel, said in a statement making the study public.
“In a free country, people have the right to make their own healthcare decisions. President Biden’s command that working Americans and private businesses submit to his mandate upon penalty of loss of livelihood is a flagrant abuse of power that will destroy Kentucky’s economy and work force.”
The jobs put at risk by the ETS’s requirement that employees who decline to be vaccinated either submit to regular testing or be terminated are located in most major economic sectors.
In economically thriving Texas, for example, more than 208,000 or 31 percent of the jobs in the wholesale trades sector would be at risk, as well as more than 367,000 (35 percent) in manufacturing, and in excess of 615,000 (36 percent) in retail trades.
The compliance costs for Texas businesses would be at least $190 million, according to the study.
The numbers for California, which has had some of the most rigorous workplace restrictions since the beginning of the CCP virus pandemic in March 2020, aren’t quite as high as those in Texas.
In California, more than 233,000 jobs, or 22 percent, in the wholesale trades would be at risk, while compliance costs for such businesses would exceed $21 million. More than 589,000 jobs (28 percent) of retail trade jobs would be jeopardized, and nearly 377,000 positions (26 percent) in the manufacturing area.
The compliance costs for those two sectors would be more than $35 million and $21 million, respectively.
On the East Coast, in New York, the wholesale trades sector would see more than 66,000 jobs at risk (17 percent), plus nearly 220,000 (22 percent) in retail trade jobs and more than 143,000 jobs (20 percent) in the professional, scientific, and technical services sector.
Compliance costs for New York businesses are estimated by the study at $146 million overall.
Among New England states, an estimated 175,000-plus New Hampshire jobs would be placed in jeopardy, with compliance costs hitting $25 million or more. The same figures for Massachusetts would be more than 766,000 jobs and $79 million in compliance costs.
The figures are somewhat higher for Midwestern states such as Indiana, where 35 percent or nearly 1.2 million jobs would be put at risk by the mandate, with compliance costs to businesses estimated at $73 million.
In Michigan, home of the U.S. automobile industry, the manufacturing sector would be hit particularly hard, with more than 256,000 jobs (36 percent of the total) put at risk. By comparison, 32 percent, or nearly 174,000 jobs would be in danger in the retail trades sector, and more than 66,000 (29 percent) in the wholesale trades sector.
In the states of the old Confederacy, 37 percent, or more than 821,000, jobs overall would be in jeopardy, while 36 percent would be at risk in Georgia and 25 percent in Virginia would be at risk. Compliance costs for those three states would total in excess of 235 million.
In the Pacific Northwest, Washington state would see more than 898,000 jobs at risk from the mandate, while compliance costs for businesses there would exceed $73 million.
While Biden’s mandate is currently being suspended under federal court order, the White House continues to encourage businesses of all descriptions to enforce informal vaccination mandates, pending the outcome of the litigation.
Thousands of federal employees and workers for federal contractors are also challenging a similar Biden mandate. There is opposition to the mandate among government workers, with the largest union representing such workers, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) issuing a statement in response to Biden claiming that mandates should be an issue of negotiation.