Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP / Getty Images
Walmart will pay the entire college tuition and book costs in some schools for their workers in the United States.
This is the latest effort by the largest private employer in the country to improve their benefits in its attempt to attract and retain its workers in a market where it is difficult to find a job .
The program includes 10 academic partners ranging from the University of Arizona to the University of Southern New Hampshire and those who wish to participate must continue to be part or full-time employees of the company.
The company said Tuesday it will eliminate the $ 1 a day fee paid by workers from Walmart and Sam’s Club seeking a degree and will also begin to cover the s costs for your books. About 28,000 workers participate in the program that Walmart started in 2018.
“We believe that eliminating the $ 1-a-day investment will remove financial barriers to enrollment and increase access,” Lorraine Stomski, Walmart’s senior vice president of learning and leadership, said Tuesday during a call with reporters.
Walmart has incentives to expand the program. Employees who have participated are twice as likely to be promoted at a “significantly higher rate “Than other workers, said Stomski.
This is the list of partners participating in the education program with Walmart:
- University Johnson & Wales
- The University of Arizona
- The University of Denver
- Pathstream
- Brandman University
- Penn Foster
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The measure comes at a time when companies across the country are facing the difficulty of hiring new employees to staff its branches with sufficient staff.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in May there were 974, 000 unfilled jobs in the retail sector. The retailer has about 1.5 million workers.
At the beginning of this year, Walmart raised wages from 425, 000 US workers at a minimum of $ 13 dollars per hour . Walmart’s minimum wage is $ 11 dollars an hour, below competitors like Amazon and Target where it starts at $ 15 dollars.
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