Google threatens to fire unvaccinated workers, JPMorgan conference goes virtual, Hobby Lobby raises min. wage

Yahoo Finance Video
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Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman reports the latest headlines, such as Google threatening to fire unvaccinated workers, JPMorgan’s annual healthcare conference going virtual, and Hobby Lobby raising its minimum wage to $18.50 in 2022.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Google has told its employees that they'll lose pay and be fired if they don't follow the company's COVID-19 vaccination policy. That's according to CNBC. Google's management circulated a memo that said employees had until December 3 to submit their vaccination status or religious exemption. And after that date, it would start contacting workers who did not do so.

Employees who have not complied by January 18 will reportedly be placed on, quote, "administrative leave" for 30 days and unpaid personal leave after that for up to six months. After that could come termination. Google has not directly responded to the report but has said it's committed to doing everything it can to help its employees get vaccinated.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan is moving its closely-watched annual health care conference to all-virtual, as some biotechnology company participants, like Moderna and Amgen, have begun to withdraw. The meeting had been scheduled for January 10 to 13 in San Francisco, live in-person. This will be the 40th edition of the conference, typically a hotbed of deal-making. JPMorgan citing the omicron variant among reasons for the change.

Arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby is raising its minimum wage to $18.50 per hour. That starts next year. The company announced the change will begin on January 1. It's $1.50 increase from its last raise in October of 2020. The federal minimum wage, just as a reminder, $7.25. That has not changed since 2009.

More than 20 states follow the federal minimum. And while almost half the country pays higher, legally at least, and is planning to increase minimum wages after January 1 of 2022. Hobby Lobby first established a nationwide minimum hourly wage above the federal minimum in 2009 and says it has raised that a dozen times since.

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