Monday’s business headlines

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Here’s a look at Monday’s business headlines.

Snowbirds

Retirees who live somewhere warm like Arizona or Florida part time to escape cold weather, won’t be flocking south this winter.

While their absence is being felt by vacation rentals, restaurants and shops, RV parks and campgrounds are seeing an increase in campers as people travel closer to home.

For those who go, they may face recommendations to quarantine for up to two weeks, though states often don’t enforce it. They’re also going into communities where hospitals are normally busiest during the winter months, and COVID-19 could overwhelm them.

Starbucks

Starbucks has announced plans to pay all U.S. employees a minimum wage of $15 over the next threee years.

CEO Kevin Johnson says chain will bump up in-store workers’ pay by at least 10% starting Monday, fast-tracking plans to pay everyone at least $15 an hour in the years to come.

Mouthwash

Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive are carefully starting to push their mouthwash after research they paid for showed that certain types of mouthwash and toothpaste could potentially help deactivate the virus that causes COVID-19.

Reducing virus particles in the mouth could help fight against the pandemic, the companies said, because COVID-19 can be spread through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks.

But based on tests so far they can’t definitively say how long the benefit would last.

Vaccine sales

As the Pfizer vaccine arrives at U.S. hospitals this week, the company stands to make a lot of money from its research.

Wall Street analysts are projecting Pfizer and Moderna will generate $32 billion in COVID-19 vaccine revenue – next year alone.

That doesn’t take into account the goodwill boost these companies will receive by helping to end the worst pandemic in a century.