Would the crisis solve the minimum wage crisis at US $ 15 per hour?
4:37
(CNN Business) -
Walmart will pay full college tuition and book costs at some schools for its US workers; it is the latest effort by the nation's largest private employer to make its benefits more attractive as it seeks to attract and retain talent in a difficult job market.
The program includes 10 academic partners ranging from the University of Arizona to the University of Southern New Hampshire. Participants must remain full or part-time employees at Walmart in order to participate.
The company said Tuesday that it will eliminate the $ 1-a-day fee previously paid by Walmart and Sam's Club workers who wanted to obtain a degree and that it will also begin to cover the expenses of its books.
About 28,000 workers participate in the program, which Walmart started in 2018. Walmart has about 1.5 million workers.
"We believe that eliminating the $ 1-a-day investment removes financial barriers to enrollment, and will increase access," Lorraine Stomski, Walmart's senior vice president of learning and leadership, said in a call with reporters Tuesday.
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Walmart also said it would add four new academic partners, bringing the total to 10, and offering more degree and certificate options in areas such as business administration, supply chain and cybersecurity.
Walmart has incentives to expand the program.
Employees who have participated in the program are twice as likely to be promoted and remain with the company at a "significantly higher percentage" than other workers, Stomski said.
The move comes at a time when retailers across the country are struggling to hire employees to staff stores and warehouses.
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In May, there were 974,000 unfilled jobs in the retail sector, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Earlier this year, Walmart raised the wages of 425,000 American workers to a low of $ 13 an hour.
Walmart's minimum wage is $ 11 an hour, below what competitors like Amazon and Target offer, with a starting wage of $ 15.
Other retailers are also raising wages, offering hiring and referral bonuses and expanding benefits as they search for workers.
Here is a list of participating Walmart partners:
Johnson & Wales University
University of Arizona
University of Denver
Pathstream
Brandman University
Penn foster
Purdue Global University
Southern New Hampshire University
Wilmington University
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