ALBANY (March 24, 2022) – The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), New York and the nation’s leading small business organization, released the following statement today by NFIB State Director Ashley Ranslow in reaction to New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement that NYC-based athletes and performers are exempt from the city’s private sector COVID vaccine mandate. The mandate remains in place for all other private employers:

“The announcement exempting New York City-based professional athletes and performers from the private sector COVID vaccine mandate is completely illogical. Why can certain unvaccinated employees report to work, and others cannot? The private sector COVID vaccine mandate should be lifted for all employers, not a select few. Small business owners, who continue to reel from the pandemic and have had to enforce public health mandates for more than two years, are increasingly frustrated and exasperated by disparate policies. With widespread labor shortages, extraordinarily high unemployment, and rising costs due to inflation, supply chain disruptions, and gas prices, it’s time to end New York City’s private sector COVID vaccine mandate. This exemption picks winners and losers and is bad public policy.”

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For more than 75 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses, and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.