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Image credit: Financial Times

Hair salon owner Antonio Maiolo wants his dozen or so staff members to become vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as they are eligible.

Maiolo, who opened his hair salon in Stamford, Connecticut, in early November, said one of his first orders of business will be making sure his 13 employees protect themselves with the vaccine, assuming they can access doses of the shot and don't have any associated health risks.

He holds a second job at a doctor's office and counts himself among the lucky individuals who have already been inoculated.

"Unless the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has any recommendations for you to not get the vaccine, I think it's going to be mandatory if I don't have any issue with that along the way," Maiolo told CBS MoneyWatch. 

He's hardly alone in leaning toward requiring the vaccine as a condition of employment, with exemptions for certain employees, in accordance with federal law.

Three-quarters of small and mid-sized business owners plan to either encourage or require employees to become vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a recent survey from financial services company PNC. Researchers surveyed 500 small and mid-sized businesses from January 2 to February 2.