Since April 2021, when all adults in the United States became eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines, the federal government, as well as most state legislatures and local officials, implemented extensive measures to increase the availability of and access to COVID-19 vaccines. Once vaccines became widely available, the federal government took steps to increase vaccination rates, including, in part, through attempts to mandate employment-based vaccination requirements. In response to, or anticipation of, such actions at the federal level, some states took the opposite approach—passing laws restricting an employer’s ability to implement a mandatory vaccination policy. With varying state laws, it is important for employers to be aware of these limitations, and how they may affect employment-based vaccination policies.

Similar to the federal law requirements for exemptions to mandatory vaccination programs, certain states codified an employee’s right to object to an employer-mandated vaccine requirement for medical and religious reasons.

Other states have passed laws that, in addition to the typical medical and/or religious exemptions, recognize broader categories of exemptions from employment-based vaccination programs:

• Arkansas (Senate Bill 739 and companion House Bill 1977) provides exemptions for an employee who (1) produces a negative COVID-19 test result no more than once a week; or (2) provides proof of immunity through COVID-19 antibodies, a T cell response, or a...

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