Adler suggests stipends for vaccinated employees

With Austin Public Health’s announcement that Austin/Travis County has entered Stage 5 for Covid-19, local officials stressed the urgency of getting vaccines into the arms of the unvaccinated. During Thursday’s budget work session, Mayor Steve Adler said, “We’re in a pretty dire place in the community with respect to the Covid virus and we’re asking the employers in the city to help … employers have the ability to require masking in their businesses and have the ability to say we really only want people who are vaccinated to come in.” City leaders are also discussing the possibility of offering incentives for people to get vaccinated, such as a stipend for city employees in addition to a 2.5 percent yearly wage increase. Adler added that he would want to offer the stipends to city employees who have already been vaccinated as well. He asked his colleagues and City Manager Spencer Cronk to consider where they might find funding for those stipends.