Kroger to give $100 bonus to employees who get vaccinated

The Kroger Co. has joined the growing list of grocery retailers offering incentives for employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The country’s largest grocery store retailer will provide a one-time payment of $100 to employees who receive the full manufacturer-recommended doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. To receive the payment, employees will need to present appropriate proof of vaccination to their human resources representative. Employees who cannot receive the vaccine due to medical or religious reasons will have the option of completing an educational health and safety course to receive the payment. 

Aldi, Trader Joe's, Dollar General and Instacart have also announced incentives to employee who receive the vaccination.

In addition to the vaccine payment, Kroger announced an additional $50 million investment to reward employees across its 35-state footprint, including a $100 store credit and 1,000 fuel points for hourly frontline grocery, supply chain, manufacturing, pharmacy and call center workers. Both rewards will be loaded to employees' loyalty cards on Thursday, Feb. 11. 

"Since March, we have invested more than $1.5 billion to both reward our associates and to safeguard our associates and customers through the implementation of dozens of safety measures that we continue to execute today,” said Tim Massa, Kroger's chief people officer. “We've also welcomed more than 100,000 new associates to The Kroger Family of Companies. As we move into a new phase of the pandemic, we're increasing our investment to not only recognize our associates' contributions, but also encourage them to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as it becomes available to them to optimize their well-being as well as the community's."