Intel offers Israeli employees $250 payment to get vaccinated

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Chipmaker Intel has offered a $250 bonus to any member of its 110,000 member workforce who gets vaccinated against COVID-19, the company announced in an internal email shared on Twitter Wednesday.

“While Intel does not currently require employees to get a COVID-19 vaccination we commend those of you who have already gotten vaccinated and want to encourage others to do so,” wrote CEO Pat Gelsinger, promising a “$250 (geo-adjusted) cash thank you for any employee who gets vaccinated or has already done so.” Hourly employees will receive $100 worth of food vouchers.

The company currently has around 14,000 employees based in Israel.

A number of corporations and governments have enacted reward schemes to encourage vaccination against SARS-CoV-2.

Last month, U.S. President Joe Biden called on state, local and territorial governments to provide $100 payments for every newly vaccinated American to boost COVID-19 inoculation rates, only hours after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that anyone getting their first COVID-19 vaccine shot at a city-run site would receive a $100 payment.

In a tweet on Tuesday, officials in Clark County, Nevada stated that they were “going to move forward with a pilot program to offer a $100 incentive to people who get their #COVID19 vaccines.”

Earlier this year, doughnut chain Krispy Kreme launched a promotion in which anyone who showed a valid COVID-19 vaccination card at a Krispy Kreme store in the United States received a free glazed doughnut.

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The free treats will be available to every vaccinated person every day until 2022, so no one will be left out, even those not yet eligible for a vaccination, Dave Skena, Krispy’s chief marketing officer, said in March.

In February, Tel Aviv’s Jenia gastropub, in partnership with the municipality, temporarily did double duty as a vaccination clinic, offering patrons free nonalcoholic drinks in exchange for receiving a jab.

Around the same time in the ultra-Orthodox Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak, municipal workers set up a trailer offering bread, drinks and cholent –a special Shabbat meat stew– to residents who agreed to be vaccinated.

Reuters contributed to this report.