Major American Employers Gives Free Covid Tests to Employees While Scarcity Contest With Others
Since the emergence of the Omicron variant, the number of positive Coronavirus cases has soared, which, combined with millions of Americans taking part in varying stages of holiday travel, has created the biggest demand for COVID tests available at home.
Many retailers have responded by limiting how many of the tests you can purchase at one time. Meanwhile, those with surging cases have raised prices significantly or ran out of tests.
According to Fortune, the COVID era has led to an increase in major employers offering new kinds of perks like COVID tests for their employees as in-office benefits like free lunches have become less relevant.
As part of its company benefits program, Google now offers free at-home COVID tests to its 90,000 employees, including those who still work from home.
Employees can request tests on an internal website, which is guaranteed to arrive within three days of a request. Wall Street Journal reports that the site crashed shortly after going live after the feature was announced last year.
The company has since adjusted its policy so that employees can receive up to 20 tests each month, which means they no longer have to procure the tests at home that countless Americans must do.
A tweet from Business Insider’s Tom Dotan revealed that one Google employee was unaware that at-home tests are available in retail stores and pharmacies.
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It’s not just Google. A wide range of companies-from grocery giants to insurance companies to bank conglomerates-offer employees free COVID tests at home.
As far back as July 2020, Kroger, the nation’s largest supermarket chain by revenue, offered free rapid COVID screenings to its employees. As of January 2021, TIAA, the leading insurer for employees in academia, medicine, and research, will begin offering employees COVID tests at home.
Goldman Sachs offers free COVID tests to its employees since October 2020. Employees in the company’s New York and Chicago offices are required to take the self-administered tests at least twice a week. However, they can take them as often as they need, and are provided with them in cases as a result of a positive test.
In addition to its obvious benefits, offering free weekly testing for employees also provides employers with the advantage of preventing outbreaks among coworkers. However, the highly coveted company perks can be rather costly for employers. According to the Wall Street Journal, in December 2020, Google paid around $50 for each test. Nonetheless, the cost of peace of mind and public health is hard to weigh against any other thing.
