Darden Restaurants to pay hourly employees to get COVID-19 vaccine Darden Restaurants to pay hourly employees to get COVID-19 vaccine January 26, 2021 dzadmin Comments 0 Comment Orlando-based Darden, which has more than 1,815 restaurants, will offer hourly employees two hours of pay for each dose of the vaccine they receive, for up to four hours of compensation, CEO Gene Lee wrote in a Tuesday letter to employees.